Voters back current commissioners, school board
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Image by conolan from Pixabay
In Clay County, the majority of voters threw their support behind incumbent candidates in the county commission and school board races during Tuesday’s primary.
In the commission board race incumbents Rob Peck, Randy Nichols and Clay Logan once again secured the top three spots. Peck received the most votes with 1,376 followed by Nichols with 1,245 and Logan with 1,044.
The two candidates who received the most votes will serve four-year terms on the board, while the third highest, in this case Logan, will serve a two-year term.
Because there was no other party contenders for county commissioners, at least two candidates are guaranteed seats on the board even though they will be on the November general election ballot. However, another candidate will be on that ballot as well.
Robert Tison, who had previously ran for sheriff, will be listed as a Constitution Party candidate so in November, there will be four candidates on the ballot vying for he three seats on the board.
In the school board race, incumbents Danny Jones and Reba Beck secured their seats for the next four years. They were the top vote- getters in a three-way race. Jones got 1,368, Beck received 1,355 and challenger and long-time Lady Jacket coach, Darryl McClure who is now retired, received 1,215. There were two seats open on the board. In the presidential primary race, North Carolina continued to be part of the South wave that favored for- mer vice president Joe Biden over Bernie Sanders and other Democratic Party candidates. In Clay County Biden got 415 votes and received 568,578 in the state overall.
Bernie Sanders received about half of that — 200 locally and 318,772 state-wide. Several Democratic challengers including Buttigieg and Amy Kloguchar dropped out of the race before Super Tuesday and endorsed Biden.
On the Republican primary bal- lot, President Donald Trump was the clear winner in Clay County as well as the state. Trump received 2,221 votes or 95 percent locally and 747,038 or 94 percent state-wide. His opponents were Joe Walsh and Bill Weld.
Clay County Elections Board Director Rebecca Hall said the primary elections went well. Almost 40 percent of the county’s voters participated in the election.