Lenoir, Harris likely to vie for mayor job
Shelby County mayor Democratic candidate
Lee Harris built a significant lead in early voting and appeared on his way to securing the Democratic nod for the county’s top elected spot with nearly 90 percent of the precincts reporting Tuesday night.
Republican candidate
After the first returns and early voting showed a close race, David Lenoir began pulling away from Terry Roland and Joy Touliatos for the GOP nod for county mayor.
Shelby County sheriff
Floyd Bonner was headed to victory over perennial candidate Bennie Cobb in the Democratic primary. If the lead held up as expected, Bonner would face Dale Lane in the August general election. Lane was unopposed in the Republican primary.
Democrat Lee Harris and Republican David Lenoir held commanding leads late Tuesday in the Shelby County mayoral primaries, the precursor to what will be one of the county’s most momentous elections in more than a decade this August.
With 149 of 166 precincts reporting and early and absentee votes counted as of 9:27 p.m., Harris, a state senator and former Memphis City Council member, handily led opponent Sidney Chism with 32,128 votes, or 76 percent of the vote. Chism, a former county commissioner, received 9,777 votes, or 23 percent, by press time.
Lenoir’s race was closer, but he also kept a comfortable lead over runner-up Terry Roland through the evening. Lenoir received 17,283 votes, or 61 percent, while Roland received 8,113 votes, or 29 percent. The third Republican in the race, Juvenile Court Clerk Joy Touliatos, lagged behind with 2,927 votes, or 10 percent.
The Shelby County Election Commission closed its polls at 7 p.m.
The winners of the primaries will battle it out in the Aug. 2 general election for the right to succeed Mark Luttrell, who is at the end of his second and final term as mayor.
As they trickled into polling locations mid-Tuesday morning, many voters said they felt like they didn’t have enough information about the many candidates sardined on the ballot and especially about the candidates for the more obscure offices.
“We want things to get better,” said Dagny Ulrich, a Midtown resident since 2005 who was voting at Mississippi Boulevard Christian Church. “We just don’t have enough information to do it.”
With the exception of Harris’ supporters, many of whom were younger and progressive, many voters kept tight-lipped about their preferred candidates.
Ulrich said she voted for Harris because he has a vision for the people who make up the community, as opposed to an approach that prioritizes the needs of businesses.
But Clara Mize, 79 and a resident of the Berclair neighborhood, said she voted for Lenoir because of his management of the trustee’s office.
“I think he handled (the trustee’s office) fine,” she said. “And we’ve had more money than we’ve ever had at the end of his reign.”
Voters cast 8,737 ballots and returned 40 absentee ballots on the last day of early voting Thursday to bring the early voting total up to 41,301, or 7.4 percent of the county’s 555,856 registered voters, according to the Election Commission.
The Election Commission was prepared for 20 percent of registered voters to vote in the primaries — but more realistically anticipated a turnout of 1214 percent between early voting and Election Day.