Three Liberty County incumbents are facing challengers in the upcoming May partisan general primary, and an open seat will be contested in the primary.
Former Hinesville City Council member Keith Jenkins, fellow former Liberty County Sheriff’s deputy Gary Richardson and Kevin Hofkin have qualified to run for sheriff against incumbent William Bowman, who is running for a second term. All four have registered to run as Democrats. Gary Eason has qualified to run for sheriff on the Republican ticket, meaning he will face the winner of the Democrat primary in November.
Several other incumbents also qualified to run again as qualifying opened Monday. Running for re-election are Probate Judge Nancy Aspinwall, Clerk of Superior Court Linda Dixon Thompson, Coroner Reggie Pierce, Liberty County Commission Chairman Donald Lovette, Liberty County District 4 Commissioner Maxie Jones IV, Liberty County District 5 Commissioner Gary Gilliard, and Liberty County District 6 Commissioner Eddie Walden. All have qualified as Democrats.
Two Republicans – Timmy Blount and Kevin Remillard – have qualified for the District 4 county commission seat.
McKesson Stafford has qualified to run against Walden in the Democrat primary for the District 6 seat. Chassidy Oliveira will run against Lovette for his chairman’s seat in the May primary, and Michael Navarro has qualified to run as a Republican in the race for county commission chairman.
Also running for re-election are school board District 1 member Lavonia “Peggy” LeCounte, school board District 2 member Marcus Scott IV and school board District 3 member Carol Guyett. School board races are non-partisan. None of three had any opposition sign up by Friday’s close of qualifying.
Michael McGirt, recently sworn in as chief magistrate, is running for the post, as is Malcom Williams. Williams is a Midway City Council member.
Kim McGlothlin and James “Jamie” Sharp are running for tax commissioner, having qualified as Democrats. Longtime tax commissioner Virgil Jones passed away last week.
State Court solicitor and State Court judge also are up for election this year. Ches Merritt has qualified to run as a Democrat for state court solicitor. Leonard Grinstead was the lone qualifier for the state court judge position, which is non-partisan.
The elections and registration office is accepting absentee ballot applications for the May 21 general primary and non-partisan election through May 10.