In his victory speech for the office of Shelby County Mayor Thursday night, Democrat Lee Harris praised his party for fielding strong candidates throughout countywide elections this year.
Shelby County Democrats' reboot paid off in the gain of several non-partisan offices, even if the Trump-charged election cycle only generated an average voter turnout. As political analyst Otis Sanford points out in this recap of election night, many of the 27.3 percent of registered voters who made it to the polls stuck to the party line.
As county Democrats shift toward more progressive candidates, county Republicans showed a right-leaning tendency, splitting the primary vote almost evenly between Diane Black, Bill Lee and Randy Boyd, whereas Lee was the overall favorite for most of the state.
