Bacchus, Boyce, Sugarmon, Walker vie for Dist. 12
Four Democrats are vying for the nomination to represent Shelby County Commission District 12, a district that includes some parts of Hickory Hill as well as some parts of southeast Shelby County south of Germantown.
An Independent candidate, Clyde Jamison, was issued a petition but did not have it returned and approved, meaning the winner of the primary is expected to win the seat.
The county primary is May 3, with early voting from April 13 through April 28. The general election is August 4.
James Q. Bacchus is a retired educator with more than 45 years of experience. He retired last year from what is now Memphis-shelby County Schools, where he last worked as principal of Hamilton High School and before that he was principal of Whitehaven High School. Today, he is a consultant with the school district mentoring new principals. This is his first time seeking elected office. Much of the position is tied into public education, Bacchus said, since the county funds the public school system.
“I wanted to continue to serve the community and specifically my own community that I live in. I live in District 12, I've been there for the last 25 years,” Bacchus said. “I bring years of experience of being able to work collaboratively and being able to accomplish common goals. I think that is something I can bring and would be needed and I think I'd do a swell job at it. The other thing is I just always have worked from outcomes based on accountability, the outcomes you seek and also the return on the outcomes I know that something around funding would be and then the other thing would be equity around resources and the access to resources. That's one of the lenses that I bring and thirdly would be economic impact. I will sustain how we grow. I will sustain our tax base.”
Reginald S. Boyce is senior pastor of Riverside Missionary Baptist Church and moderator of the Whitehaven District Association. He is also a seminary teacher at the Tennessee School of Religion and a board member of Memphis Inner City Rugby. Boyce, who has lived in the district for 10 years, previously worked for the Memphis-shelby County Schools for three years in special education and as director for school age childcare. He said he believes District 12 has the talent pool and the change agents to create a stronger Shelby County.
“As preachers and pastors, we have to extend the pulpit and get into the marketplace, but also I just believe in being a voice, being a servant,” Boyce said. “We need fair representation. We need a seat at the table, and we bring other people to the table so when major decisions are being discussed in the rooms we have the representation we need to speak on behalf (of others).”
Erika Sugarmon is a teacher and activist who's taught at White Station High School for 23 years. She's known in Shelby County, especially for her advocacy for ranked-choice voting and for hand-marked paper ballots, and comes from a family of civil rights leaders. In 2019, she sought election the Memphis City Council, losing to Chase Carlisle. Part of her goal in running again, this time for a county position, is to ensure that the county gets its fair share of funding from the state, including resources to make the community safer, to fully fund its educational system and to address infrastructure, she said.
“I'm going to run for office and I'm going to make an impact because I have an agenda as far as things I want to see happen and I'm going to advocate for,” she said. “I have been reaching across west
Tennessee to speak to different mayor-elects, aldermen, etc. because we keep getting targeted by all these ugly hateful bills by the state and it's time we stand up. That's something I want to advocate is for us standing up together and fighting back. The main thing is holding the state accountable and then we can do the things we need to do here in Shelby County.”
David P. Walker has owned a barbershop in the district since 1999. About four years ago, he started working with a barbering program in the school system, first at Melrose High School and now at Ridgeway High School. He's never held elected office before but ran for Memphis mayor in 2015 and 2019. Walker said he wants to run for commission in order to look out for his community.
“I'm a part of this community and I have been so for 22 years,” Walker said. “I don't have to shake the hands, because I know what we need. When I first opened up in ‘99, the Hickory Hill area was a prosperous area, with everything you needed from Circuit City to Barnes and Noble to Sports Authority. It's just lost so many businesses. You combine that with section 8 homes within that community and it really takes a devastating economic blow. It has never really recovered. All the businesses just moved eastward.”
Katherine Burgess covers county government and religion. She can be reached at katherine.burgess@commercialappeal.com, 901-529-2799 or followed on Twitter @kathsburgess.