As 2024 creeps up on us, that means we are getting closer to the Primaries. County and state filing for political offices in Texas begins on Saturday, November 11, 2023. There are five positions up for election in Terry County, and of course State House Representatives, State Board of Education, US House Representatives, US Senator (Texas), and President of the United States.
As of right now, declared major candidates for President of the United States in the Democrat Party (in alphabetical order) are President Joe Biden (Deleware), Dean Phillips (Minnesota), and Marianne Williamson (Texas). Declared major candidates for the Republican Party are Ryan Binkley (Texas), Doug Burgum (North Dakota), Chris Christie (New Jersey), Ron Desantis (Florida), Nikki Haley (South Carolina), Asa Hutchinson (Arkansas), Vivek Ramaswamy (Ohio), Tim Scott (South Carolina), and former president Donald Trump (Florida)
For the US Senate seat, Ted Cruz is the incumbent and has five other Republican candidates competing which are:
- Cody Andrews
- Carlos Garza
- Josiah Ingalls
- Rufus Lopez
- Montgomery Markland
There are 13 Democrats who have declared to run for the US Senate seat. They are:
- Colin Allred
- Tracy Andrus
- Aaron Arguijo
- Victor D. Dunn
- Meri Gomez
- Mark A. Gonzalez
- Roland Gutierrez
- Steve Keough
- John Love III
- Soren Pendragon
- Heli Rodriguez-Prilliman
- Sherri Taylor
- Thierry Tchenko
For US House Representative District 19, Jodey Arrington is the incumbent and will be contested in the Republican Primary by Vance Boyd.
For Texas State House Representative District 83, Dustin Burrows is the incumbent and will be contested in the Republican Primary by Terry County business owner Wade Cowan.
Moving on to the Terry County positions, the County Attorney’s position is up for election. The current holder is incumbent Jo’shae Ferguson Worley. The County Tax Assessor/Collector office is up for election and the current official is incumbent Rexanne Furlow. Terry County Sheriff’s position is also up for election. Current Sheriff Timothy Click has filed his “Appointment of a campaign treasurer” Next, Terry County Commissioners Precinct 1 and Precinct 3 are up for election. The current office holder for Precinct 1 is Mike Swain. TownTalk Media reached out to Swain to find out if was running for another four-year term. Swain told TownTalk that he was not filing or running for the office of Precinct 1 Commissioner. By the end of his term December 31, 2024, Swain will have served as commissioner for 16 years. Precinct 3 office holder is incumbent Martin Lefevere.
Current office holders can begin filing for these positions on Saturday, November 11, 2023. If a person would like to file as a Democrat, they will need to contact Geronimo M. Gonzales, Terry County Democratic Chair at (806) 831-5260. If a person would like to file as a Republican, they will need to contact Eric Horton, Terry County Republican Chair at (325) 933-8028. You can pick up filing papers at the Joint Elections Administrator Office located at the Terry County Annex – 507 W. Main in Brownfield or call Krystal Valentin at (806)637-3806 for more information.
Both Democrat and Republican Primaries will be held on Tuesday, March 5, 2024, also known as Super Tuesday. If three or more candidates in the same party are in a race for the same office, then in order for a candidate to become the nominee to be placed on the general ballot, they would need to get 50% plus one vote. If that does not happen, it will trigger a runoff election for the top two candidates.
