The Anderson County general election and state and federal primary elections are Thursday.
Competitive races include the Democratic and Republican primaries for U.S. Senate, Republican primary for Tennessee House of Representatives in District 33 in Anderson County, an Anderson County Commission seat in District 6 in Oak Ridge, and seats on the Anderson County School Board.
Voters can cast ballots in the county general election and either the Democratic or Republican state and federal primary election.
In the Republican primary for U.S. Senate, incumbent Marsha Blackburn, who formerly served in the U.S. House of Representatives, is seeking a second six-year term in the Senate. She has a Republican challenger, Tres Wittum, who said he has more than a decade of policy experience working for Tennessee Senate leadership.
The Democratic primary, meanwhile, features four candidates: Tennessee Representative Gloria Johnson of Knoxville, environmental advocate Marquita Bradshaw, NAACP membership committee chair Lola Denise Brown of Nashville, and middle school teacher Civil Miller-Watkins of Bolivar.
Read this USA Today story for more information about the U.S. Senate candidates: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2024/07/12/tennessee-voter-guide-republican-and-democratic-primaries-for-us-senate/74175136007/.
The Tennessee House of Representatives seat in District 33 includes two Republicans: the incumbent, John D. Ragan of Oak Ridge, who has served in the House since 2010, and former Clinton Police Chief Rick Scarbrough, who is now executive director of the University of Tennessee Law Enforcement Innovation Center.
The winner of the Republican primary will face Democrat Anne Backus of Oak Ridge, a retired project manager from the Y-12 National Security Complex in the November 5 general election. Backus is unopposed in the Democratic state primary on Thursday.
The District 6 seat on Anderson County Commission includes Oak Ridge City Hall and the Robertsville and West Hills precincts in Oak Ridge.
Small business owner Aaron Wells, a Republican, was appointed to that seat to replace former Commissioner Catherine Denenberg in May 2023. He is now seeking to fill the remainder of Denenberg’s term.
He is being challenged by Democrat Ebony Capshaw, who previously served as 5th Senatorial District executive committeewoman and ran in 2018 for Anderson County trustee.
Competitive elections for Anderson County School Board include Dail R. Cantrell, a Republican, and Sharon Burlingame, an Independent, in District 3; Darren Carden, a Republican, and John S. Burrell, an Independent, in District 4; Sherri Jarnigan-Beaty, a Republican, Theresa Evans Venable, a Democrat, and Andy McKamey, an Independent, in District 5; and Glenda J. Langenberg, a Republican, and David Miller, a Democrat, in District 8.
You can watch some of the candidates at an election forum hosted by the League of Women Voters of Oak Ridge here. Among other issues, they discuss school vouchers, guns and gun deaths, and teaching history in K-12 schools.
Unopposed candidates in Thursday’s election include:
- U.S. Representative Chuck Fleischmann, the Republican incumbent in District 3, which includes Oak Ridge;
- Jack Allen, a Democratic candidate for U.S. House in District 3 (he will oppose Fleischmann in the November 5 general election);
- Tennessee Representative Ed Butler, the Republican incumbent, in District 41;
- Joel Derek Hawn, a Democrat, in District 41 (he will challenge Butler in November);
- Daniel Forrester, a Republican, for District 7 Chancellor in Anderson County;
- John K. Alley Jr., a Republican, for Anderson County property assessor; and
- James T. “Jim” Normand, an Independent, for Oak Ridge city judge.
For more information, see the Anderson County Election Commission website here.
More information will be added as it becomes available.
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