CELINA-A total of 18 candidates had qualified to run in the 2026 August Election and over 50 potential candidates had secured petitions as of last Friday when the local election office closed before the winter storm.

Due to the winter storm, the election office was closed Monday and the closure extended through Wednesday, when all county offices are normally closed.

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

Six had secured petitions to run for county mayor, half of which have qualified to run.  The current list of potential mayoral candidates includes incumbent Dale Reagan, Adam Bryant, and Craig Copess, while Ronnie “Pee Wee” Smith, Greg Brannon, and Neal Austin Smith have qualified.

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

Two have also qualified to run for circuit court clerk, including incumbent Keshia Smith and Susan Beth Birdwell.

Incumbent road superintendent Jason Browning has also qualified to run for re-election, while potential challengers who have picked up papers for the office include Charles Eddie Emerton and Colby Garrison.

There are now nine potential successors to retiring Register of Deeds Brenda Browning, as Whitney Franklin Thompson and Carly Roach Lynn have qualified, and Valeria Browning Kendall, Misty Dawn Allen, Karin Lane Pierce, Jennifer D. Smith, Isabella Hale, Tony Daniels, and Allie Atchley 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 17 potential county commission candidates have secured petitions so far, and four have qualified to run.

In District 1, Hugh Brian Cherry, Robert Jacoby, Anthony Lee Smith, and Derek Scott have picked up their papers, while District 2 incumbents Parrish L. Wright and Jeff Gentry have also 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 candidates James (Cornbread) Maxwell and Kristen Matthews, 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 Kyle Haney, Tanner Harvey, and Eli Watson have qualified to run in the same district.

School Board

One incumbent in each school board district on the ballot have also secured petitions, but have yet to qualify.

They include James Mays in District 2, Todd Houston Lynn in District 3, and Nathan Sherrell in District 5.

Aldermen

Four potential candidates have now 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—who is now qualified to run in the municipal election, and Dorothy Burchett Forney also make up two of the four who have picked up qualifying papers for city alderman.

The other pair of potential alderman candidates include Patricia Ann Burton and Justin L. Rich.

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.

Clay County resident Rayne M. Smith will also be a local primary candidate.  She has qualified to run for District 12 Republican State Executive Committeewoman.

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].