2 vie to represent Shelby County’s District 6
Where and what is District 6?
District 6 encompasses northwest Shelby County, including Egypt, Raleigh and parts of North Memphis. The district stretches east to Summer Avenue, west to Range Line Road, north to Loosahatchie River Drainage Canal and south to Wolf River. It is home to more than 69,000 people. Current District 6 Commissioner Willie Brooks, who has held the position since 2014, is running for Shelby County Register of Deeds.
Who are the candidates; what are their platforms?
There are two candidates running in the Democratic primary for this position are Alex Boulton and Charlie A. Caswell, Jr.
Alex Boulton grew up in the Raleighfrayser area. He currently works as a recruiting manager, connecting contractors to candidates looking for work. He also worked as a legislative aide for
then-state Sen. Lee Harris, now the County Mayor, and Senator Sara Kyle in 2015. Boulton served as treasurer and later president of the Shelby County Young Democrats.
"District 6 has been underserved for almost three decades. I was born and raised in the Raleigh-frayser area my entire existence in Memphis. I have seen communities such as Bartlett, Lakeland, Arlington, Germantown, and
Collierville have spontaneously [grown] as it relates to providing jobs, great school systems low crime rates. My role as the next commissioner of District 6 is to promote community unity. We fix it by 'sixing' it together. Six it together promotes improving the community, building more community relationships, and fostering civic pride."
Charlie A. Caswell Jr. grew up in Dixie Homes apartments in North Memphis. He is currently the executive director of Legacy of Legends Community Development Corporation, which serves children ages 5 to 17 in the Frayser-raleigh area, focusing on addressing "adverse childhood experience and trauma" and connecting them to counseling and mental health services. Caswell said he understands the lasting impact exposure to violence at an early age can have on mental health. As commissioner, he hopes to focus on youth by prioritizing education, mental health and job skills for economic development.
"I've been a big advocate for children, and I'm going to help in addressing social-emotional learning for our youth and our children, knowing the lack of resources really being spent around it, especially coming out of the pandemic. I'm really looking to use that seat as a commissioner to focus on addressing that in education. I think that has an impact on academic outcomes."