CLARKSVILLE, TN (CLARKSVILLE NOW) – With Thursday night’s election results, the 21-member Montgomery County Commission has gone from being evenly split – with seven seats each among Republicans, Democrats and independents – to having a Democratic majority, now with 11 Democrats, seven Republicans and three independents.
What’s more, the Democratic swing took place with contested races. Republicans won five County Commission races Thursday night, flipping two from independents, including Brad VanKirk unseating incumbent independent David Shelton. Democrats also won five races, but they flipped four: two from red to blue, and two from independents.
| MORE: Election results: Oliver wins sheriff, Golden re-elected, 3 commissioners unseated
The results also show increasing political party influence on the commission, with the number of independents dropping from seven to three.
Leverett: ‘They have to come to us now’
Tiffany Manning, a Democrat, unseated independent Ryan Gallant, taking 67.6% of the vote in District 18: “We done flipped, but we’re not going to flop, and we’re going to get it done,” Manning told Clarksville Now at Thursday night’s Montgomery County Democratic Party event at Joker’s Comedy Club.
Democrat Rashidah Leverett, who was unopposed in District 5, said the majority position will have a real impact. “They have to come to us now,” Leverett said. “Now we get to make decisions for Montgomery County – for all people.
“We have to demonstrate that we are serious about our share of the pie,” she said. “Now that they have to come to us, let’s go ahead and do right by the people of Montgomery County.”
Impact on state politics: Power to appoint
Montgomery County Republican Party Chair Joe Smith said Republicans have done great work for the county through conservative principles.
“We did not have a tax increase because we, as conservatives, sat down and worked with our fellow commissioners, and we created a budget that didn’t need that. We made cuts that are hard to make, and we made that happen,” Smith told Clarksville Now at Thursday night’s watch party at Clyde’s restaurant at the River Club.
“Unfortunately, we lost a few seats tonight, but I think mainly we came away very victorious for Montgomery County, and we’re going to keep it very conservative,” he said.
While the commission swung Democrat, almost all of the county offices on the ballot – with mayor, sheriff, General Sessions judge and Circuit Court clerk contested – remained in Republican hands.
But losing the commission has important effects, including with appointments of state and local representatives when vacancies occur. This happened most recently when the commission appointed fellow Commissioner Michael Lankford, a Republican, to represent state House District 75. “If the Republican Party does not hold that, we don’t get to appoint that seat. So that’s one of the main partisan issues that you’ll see on the County Commission, and we need to hold that,” Smith said.
Democrats win 3 School Board races
Democrats also had big wins on the Clarksville-Montgomery County School Board, which, after some recent changes, looked primed to become all-Republican. But Thursday night, with four of the seven School Board races on the ballot, Democrats won three, flipping one from red to blue. The board had been 5-2 Republican-Democrat. It’s now 4-3 Republican-Democrat.
Longtime School Board member Carol Berry, a Democrat, won with 63% over Republican Kailee Cordell. Berry told Clarksville Now she will keep fighting for public education. “We are going to continue to fight vouchers, we are going to continue to fight charter schools, and we are going to continue to (fight) any of these injustices in our schools,” Berry said. “And I might have to stand 5 feet tall, but I want to tell you, dynamite comes in small packages.”
Looking to November state races
Allie Philips, who ran unopposed for the Democratic nomination for state House District 75, predicted the wins will carry forward in November, when she faces state Rep. Lankford. “Not only are we going to flip the County Commission, not only are we going to flip the School Board, but we’re going to flip Montgomery County,” she said.
Election Day will be Nov. 3 for the State General and City of Clarksville Election, with governor, U.S. Senate, Congress, state Senate and state House seats on the ballot. The voter registration deadline is Oct. 5. Early voting will be Oct. 14-29.
For more information on voting, go to the Montgomery County Election Commission website, visit their office at 350 Pageant Lane, Suite 404, email vote@mcgtn.net or call 931-648-5707.
Nia Holland, Nick Arvin and Jazmin Logan contributed to this report.
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