EDITOR’S NOTE: This story does not reflect any potential candidates who secured qualifying petitions after Friday, January 16. For daily updates, follow the Clay County Election Commission Facebook page.

CELINA-A list of 27 potential candidates had secured petitions to qualify to run in the 2026 August Election as of last Friday when the local election office closed here, and a total of nine had returned their papers with the required signatures for qualification.

Locally, the offices of Clay County Mayor, all 10 Clay County Commissioners, county trustee, general sessions judge, sheriff, circuit court clerk, county clerk, register of deeds, road superintendent, and school board members in Districts 2, 3, and 5 will be on the ballot.

Additionally, two new city alderman seats will be filled in the election, after the current three City of Celina aldermen voted to expand their governing body to five members.

Candidates have until noon on March 10 to qualify.

Countywide

Three had secured petitions to run for county mayor, but have yet to qualify.  The current list of potential mayoral candidates includes Adam W. Bryant, Craig Scott Copess, and Ronald Ray Smith.

A pair of candidates have already qualified to run for sheriff, including incumbent Brandon Lance Boone and James “JB” Killmon.

Two have also picked up papers to run for circuit court clerk, with incumbent Keshia Smith already qualified and Susan B. Birdwell securing a petition.

The offices of road superintendent and register of deeds each have three potential candidates on their respective lists, but only one has qualified to run.

Incumbent road superintendent Jason Browning has qualified, while potential challengers who have picked up papers include Charles Eddie Emerton and Colby Garrison.

There are currently three potential successors to retiring Register of Deeds Brenda Browning (see related story), as Whitney R. Thompson, Valeria Browning Kendall, and Misty Dawn Allen have all secured petitions.

Rounding out the list of candidates for countywide offices are incumbent County Clerk Donna R. Watson and incumbent Trustee Angie Thompson, who have both qualified to run for re-election and currently have no potential challengers.

Commission

A total of 11 potential county commission candidates have secured petitions so far, and three have qualified to run.

In District 1, Hugh B. Cherry has picked up his papers and is the lone potential candidate at this time.

District 2 incumbent Parrish L. Wright has secured a petition and Cassie R. Skulley has qualified to run in the same district.

District 3 incumbents Jennifer L. Ritter and Dorothy Burchett Forney, along with District 3 potential candidate James W. Maxwell, have all picked up their papers, but have yet to qualify.

In District 4, incumbent Winton E. Young and Anthony D. Boles have also both secured petitions.

District 5 incumbent Elizabeth Ann Boles has picked up her papers, while both Kyle Haney and Tanner Harvey have qualified to run.

Aldermen

Two potential candidates have secured petitions to run for the two City of Celina alderman seats to be filled.

In addition to their potential county commission bids, James W. Maxwell and Dorothy Burchett Forney also make up the pair who have picked up qualifying papers for the city alderman.

Primaries

Besides the county general and municipal elections, the ballot will also include races in the Clay County Republican and Democratic Federal and State Primaries.

Primary offices on the ballot will include U.S. Senate, District 6 U.S. House of Representatives, Governor, District 38 State House of Representatives, and District 12 Republican and Democratic State Executive Committeeman and Committeewoman.

Primary candidates are required to file their original petition in the county election office where they reside and file a certified duplicate petition in the other county election offices within their district.

Locally, incumbent District 12 Democratic State Executive Committeewoman and Clay County resident Carol Venea Abney has secured a petition to run for re-election, but she has yet to qualify.

For more information about the upcoming election, contact the Clay County Election Office at 931-243-2536.

Candidates

encouraged

to announce

The HORIZON offers free election announcements edited to the newspaper’s format to candidates.  They run on the front page with a color photo as space allows, with no more than six appearing in a given issue.

If there are more than six announcements in any given week, they will be held until the following week or will be run in another prominent location elsewhere in the paper, if a candidate wants their announcement published that week.

A deadline to have announcements published will be released at a later date.  Announcements should be emailed to [email protected].