Tucker to be next BOE chairman
Republican Otho Tucker, the former CEO of Lake Oconee Academy, will be the new Greene County Board of Education chairman after defeating Democrat Kristine Marchelle Mapp in Tuesday’s election.
Tucker received nearly 70 percent of the vote (8,607) to Mapp’s 30.49 percent (3,776).
Tucker had defeated incumbent Perry Lee by getting 58 percent of the vote in the primary.
District 10 Congressman Mike Collins appears to have held onto his seat by gobbling up more than 70 percent of the vote. Challenger Alexandra “Lexy” Doherty received only 29.44 percent of the vote in District 10 and didn’t win a single precinct in Greene County. The vote was relatively close in Greensboro, Union Point, Siloam, and White Plains, but one in five voters in the Old Salem precinct chose Collins.
Trey Rhodes has held onto his District 124 seat (representing Greene, Oglethorpe, Taliaferro, and part of Putnam counties) in the Georgia State House of Representatives. He received a total of 18,635 votes (73.15 percent) in the district to Democrat Melanie Miller’s 6,841 votes (26.85 percent). Rhodes was the overwhelming choice of Greene County voters, with 72.10 percent of the vote (9,061 votes) to 27.90 percent (3,507 votes) for Miller. Miller had defeated Rickie Glenn with 87 percent of the vote in the Democratic primary.
Greene County voters preferred former president Donald Trump and J.D. Vance by a margin of almost two-to-one. Trump received 8,214 votes (64.2 percent) to 3,514 votes for the Kamala Harris/Tim Walz ticket.
Libertarian Chase Oliver, Green Party candidate Jill Stein, and Independents Cornell West and Claudia De la Cruz did not significantly impact the election locally.
Unopposed candidates in the Greene County election include: Republican Lee Anderson, who will retain the District 24 seat in the Georgia State Senate; Ocmulgee Judicial Circuit District Attorney T. Wright Barksdale, a Republican; Clerk of Superior Court Deborah D. Jackson, a Democrat; Sheriff Donnie Harrison, a Republican, who defeated challenger Robby McCannon by getting 72 percent of the vote in the primary; Tax Commissioner Celeste Thurmond, a Republican, who defeated Traci Paquette by getting 58 percent of the vote in the primary; Republican Coroner Chris Peters; Republican Chairman of the Greene County Board of Commissioners Gary Usry; Republican Jeffery Smith who kept his District 2 seat on the Greene County Board of Commissioners; and Republican Mark Blanton who will now occupy the District 4 seat on the Greene County BOC after he finished second in the primary to Steve Broadbent but won the runoff.
Greene County voters set a new record for early voting with 9,886 votes before election day, and 80 percent of registered voters cast ballots: 12,901 out of 16,036 eligible voters.
Hooks voted next Morgan County sheriff
There’s a new sheriff in town.
Republican Tyler Hooks will be the next Morgan County sheriff following a significant victory over Democrat Derrick Reid Tuesday.
Hooks won 71.1 percent of the vote (9,293) to Reid’s 28.90 percent (3,778). Hooks was favored in every precinct except the Recreation Department precinct, where Reid took 59.59 percent of the vote (1,258).
Hooks beat Joseph Pritchett, Dietrich Derrick Roland, Kevin Berisko, Ryan Morgan, Kenny Stewart, and Bo Kelly in the Republican primary to continue his bid for sheriff. In January, Hooks will replace Robert Markley, who is retiring.
In other local races, Republican Bill Kurtz is keeping his District 5 Commissioner seat. He beat Diana Cossio in the Republican primary to pit him in Tuesday’s election against Democrat Claudia Regan Crenshaw.
Kurtz beat Crenshaw with 82.36 percent of the vote (2,316); Crenshaw received 17.64 percent (496).
At the state level, Republican Brian Strickland will also keep his Senate District 42 seat after a significant victory over Democrat challenger Kacy Morgan. Strickland had 76.15 percent of the county’s vote (9,803), compared to Morgan’s 23.85 percent (3,070). Strickland took significant victories in every precinct except the Recreation Department precinct, where Morgan was slightly favored with 53.99 percent of the vote (1,103).
For the U.S. House of Representatives District 10 seat, incumbent Mike Collins is getting another term. He beat Democratic contender Alexandra “Lexy” Doherty, snapping her bid to be the first woman elected to serve District 10.
Collins won in Morgan County with 76.1 percent of the vote (9,822), compared to Doherty’s 23.9 percent (3,084), though Doherty had a slight edge in the Recreation Department precinct with 53.74 percent of the vote (1,091). Across District 10, Collins won 63.1 percent of the vote (256,054), while Doherty received 36.9 percent (149,723).
Morgan County voters largely favored former President Donald Trump for the highly-anticipated presidential race. He won 72.74 percent of the county’s vote (9,587) over Vice President Kamala Harris’ 26.81 percent (3,533). Harris was favored in the Recreation Department precinct with 59.04 percent of the vote (1,254), but Trump won-handedly in the other precincts.
Libertarian Chase Oliver and Green Party candidate Jill Stein did not account for a large portion of the vote, taking 0.37 percent (49) and 0.08 percent (10), respectively.
Candidates who ran unopposed include: District 114 State Representative Tim Fleming, a Republican; Ocmulgee Judicial Circuit District Attorney T. Wright Barksdale, a Republican; Clerk of Superior Court Jody Milford Higdon, a Republican; Tax Commissioner Wendy Coe, a Republican; Coroner Adam Carter, a Republican; District 3 Commissioner Ben Riden, a Republican who beat Steve Shepard and Frank Heusser in the primary; District 4 Commissioner Philipp von Hanstein, a Republican; Board of Education District 1 member Cheryl Bland, a Democrat; Board of Education District 2 member Joe Slaughter, a Republican; and Board of Education District 3 member Brad Hawk, a Republican.
Morgan County voters showed up in massive numbers for the 2024 General Election. A total of 13,278 voters cast their ballots in the election, amounting to an 82-percent voter turnout rate.
According to county manager Adam Mestres, 63 percent of registered voters voted by voting early or submitting absentee ballots.