ROCKINGHAM — The candidate lists are set for the upcoming primary elections next spring.
The two-week filing period for the 2024 election ended at noon on Friday, with several candidates signing up to run before the deadline.
The only other candidate not previously reported to file for the Richmond County Board of Education was Bess Schuler, who previously ran in 2022.
Three seats on the School Board are up for reelection, currently held by Chairman Wiley Mabe, Ron Tillman and Jerry Ethridge. Tillman and Ethridge both filed within the first two days, as did challenger Michael Veach. Mabe did not file for reelection.
There will also be three seats up for grabs on the Richmond County Board of Commissioners. Those are currently held by Chairman Jeff Smart and Commissioners Toni Maples and Andy Grooms, all three of whom filed.
Joining them on the ballot for the Republican primary will be Jamie Gathings.
On the Democratic Party side, Deborah Washington Crumpton and Cassandra “DeeDee” Wall will join Linda K. Ross on the ballot.
Richard Robinson will be the lone Libertarian on the ballot in that race. He is the first Libertarian from Richmond County to file since P.H. Dawkins ran for state Senate in 2014.
In other local races, Register of Deeds Kim Robers and District Court Judge Amy Wilson are running unopposed for their respective seats.
State Sen. Dave Craven, R-Randolph, will face opposition in November from Richmond County Democrat Kevin Clark for the 29th District seat.
The district includes all of Richmond, Anson and Montgomery counties, as well as eastern Union and most of Randolph.
Clark, a veteran and current chairman of the county’s Democratic Party, previously ran for the Richmond County Board of Commissioners in 2020 and 2022.
State Rep. Ben Moss, R-Richmond, will face a challenge from Jimmy Self of Aberdeen.
On the federal level, there are seven Republicans running for the 8th Congressional District seat being vacated by Rep. Dan Bishop, who is running for state attorney general.
Richmond County’s Chris Maples will face off in the primary against: Mark Harris and Allan Baucom of Union County; state Rep. John Bradford and Don Brown of Mecklenburg County; and Leigh Brown of Cabarrus County.
Harris defeated incumbent Robert Pittenger in the 2018 Republican primary and challengers from the Democratic, Libertarian and Green parties in the general election, but withdrew following a voting scandal involving someone working for his campaign.
Justin Dues, of Concord, has filed to run for the seat as a Democrat.
The 8th Congressional District includes all of Richmond, Anson, Montgomery, Scotland, Stanly and Union counties; as well as most of Cabarrus, the western half of Robeson, and an eastern sliver of Mecklenburg.
Hamlet’s Nigel Bristow also filed to run for Congress — against the 9th District’s Rep. Richard Hudson.
While the eastern edge of Richmond County currently falls in the 9th District, the new maps that are being used for the upcoming election place the county wholly in the 8th District.
However, there is no requirement for members of the U.S. House of Representatives to reside in the district they represent, only the state.
Bristow, a former New York Police Department detective, challenged Sheriff Mark Gulledge for the county’s top badge in 2022.
Hudson, whose district has included Richmond County at times, has served in Congress since 2013. He will face a primary opponent in Sanford’s Troy L. Tarazon.
The Republican primary is scheduled for March 5, 2024 and the election for the school board will be the same day, since that race is nonpartisan.
For the commissioners’ race, the top three vote-getters in the primary will appear on the ballot in November.
The Richmond County Board of Elections was unsure Monday if there would be a Democratic primary.
