What voters in Shelby County need to know
On Tuesday, Shelby County voters, and those across Tennessee, will join the millions of people heading to the polls to decide who should be the Democratic nominee for president. Many will also affirm President Donald Trump as the presumptive Republican nominee.
More than 43,000 people in Shelby County have already voted during two weeks of early voting. That’s up about 30 percent from 2016, according to the state of Tennessee. The county, which has the largest Democratic voting bloc, has seen a burst of activity from the campaigns in recent days.
Mike Bloomberg, the former New York City mayor, made two stops in Memphis, including one on Friday. Jill Biden, the wife of former Vice President Joe Biden, made an appearance Sunday. The other two more progressive candidates, Sens Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders, have robust grassroots campaigns in the area.
For candidates to grab some of Tennessee’s 64 delegates, they need to get over 15 percent of the vote statewide and in each of the nine congressional districts. Those districts are weighted by past Democratic turnout, meaning Shelby County has a say in how 11 delegates between the 9th and 8th Congressional districts — 7 for the 9th and 4 for the 8th — are allocated.
In 2016, more than a quarter of Hillary Clinton’s vote total came from Shelby County, where she won 80 percent of the vote in what is a considered a largely moderate Democrat part of the state.
Beyond Tennessee and Shelby County’s small, but significant, role in presidential politics, Tuesday will also be the day the field for Shelby County General Sessions Court Clerk will be winnowed down to two.
If you haven’t voted in a while, or aren’t sure of your voting place, you can use the state’s voter registration lookup tool.
Polls open at 7 a.m. and close at 7 p.m.
State of the Democratic race
Shelby County voters will see more candidates on the ballot than are currently running.there are a slew of other candidates who have dropped out that will appear on the ballot — Deval Patrick, Marianne Williamson, Andrew
Yang, Julián Castro, John K. Delaney and Michael Bennet.
Following Biden’s landslide victory in South Carolina, several of the candidates who had positioned themselves as potential alternatives — Sen. Amy Klobuchar and South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg — dropped out of the race Monday.
They, and billionaire Tom Steyer, who dropped out Saturday, will appear on the Shelby County ballot and likely received votes during two weeks of early voting.
Super Tuesday is seen as a test for the Biden campaign following the burst of momentum South Carolina gave him. If he fails to amass a significant amount of delegates on Tuesday and keep pace with Sanders, his path to the nomination could become quite narrow.
The Biden campaign, according to national media outlets, has targeted congressional districts that have demographics similar to South Carolina — where African Americans make up the majority of the Democratic electorate. Shelby County, and Memphis, have demographics that match that description.
However, beyond some events, an advertising buy late last week and Jill Biden’s appearance Sunday, the Biden campaign’s local presence has not been robust.
That pales in contrast to Bloomberg, who visited Memphis twice and secured the endorsements of much of the area’s political elite. The former mayor has staked his candidacy on Super Tuesday. He did not appear on the ballot in the first four states.
It is believed that there remains considerable goodwill for Biden in Shelby County because of his two terms as vice president under President Barack Obama. Bloomberg and Biden are seen to be competing for the Democratic base of Shelby County.
Sanders, however, is looking to grow the 20 percent of the vote he received in 2016. And, if Biden, Bloomberg and Warren each receive substantial vote totals, that 20 percent — if it holds or grows — could be a close second or even a narrow first-place finish in Shelby County.
Beyond Warren, Sanders, Biden and Bloomberg, Tulsi Gabbard is also on the ballot. She is polling in the low single digits nationwide.
General Sessions Court Clerk race
There are 13 candidates on the ballot in the Democratic side of the General Sessions Court Clerk race. They include some long-time employees in the clerk’s office and some well-known local political names.
Here they are as they appear on the ballot:
❚ Gortria Banks, the finance administrator for the clerk’s office.
❚ Rheunte Benson, the current court coordinator for the clerk’s office.
❚ Joe Brown, the former Memphis City Councilman who lost a race for Memphis City Court Clerk last October.
❚ Tanya Cooper, an educator who has run for Memphis City Council twice.
❚ Adrienne Dailey-evans, chief administrative officer for the clerk’s office.
❚ Deirdre Fisher, current assistant to the register of deeds
❚ R.S. Ford Sr.
❚ Del Gill, a longtime Shelby County political operative
❚ Eddie Jones, Shelby County Commissioner
❚ Wanda Logan-faulkner
❚ Thomas Long, former Memphis City Court Clerk
❚ Reginald Milton, Shelby County Commissioner
❚ Tavia Tate, deputy court clerk There are four candidates on the ballot for general sessions court clerk on the Republican side.
❚ Paul Boyd, former probate court clerk
❚ Michael Finney
❚ George “Dempsy” Summers, perennial candidate
❚ Lisa Wimberly, a collection manager at Mangrum & Mangrum law firm.