WKNO TRANSCRIPT
CHRISTOPHER BLANK (Host): The ballot for the August primary is nearly set, and with some recent campaign finance disclosures, we know a little about the upcoming races here in Shelby County. Mike Carpenter, principal with Carpenter Civic Strategies, and a former Shelby County Commissioner is here to talk about that. Hey Mike!
CARPENTER: Hey, Chris.
BLANK: Let's start with the race for Shelby County Mayor. What does the fundraising tell you about the Democrat slate?
CARPENTER: Well, it tells us that there are two leading candidates right now and that's City Councilman JB Smiley and County Commissioner Mickell Lowery. Smiley reported about $330,000 on hand and Lowery reported about $315,000 on hand. And that $15,000 difference, I would say, is negligible in a race this size. So those are the two front runners in the race. The other thing is that you see some ascendance by Heidi Kuhn, who is the Criminal Court Clerk. And then I think the other thing about these disclosures that's really interesting is that there's been a lot of hoopla around the entrance of Dr. Marie Feagins, the former superintendent.
BLANK: Right, and she was a kind of surprise candidate given she's also in court trying to get her job back with the school district. But the Democratic Party here questioned her political bonafides. What happened with that?
CARPENTER: Well, so I think the first thing for the public to know is that this is a normal process. Both the Democratic Party and the Republican Party have a right under state law to choose which candidates are bonafide Republicans or Democrats. and they have a process for that. It's called a primary board. And each party has a little bit different standard, but locally they use sort of as a guideline in the Democratic Party that candidates had to have voted in three out of the last five Democratic primaries. And [that they], obviously, haven't done any anti-Democratic work or endorsement of candidates on the other side. The issue with Marie Feagins is that, no. 1, she hasn't been here very long and so she doesn't have a primary voting history. And then what I'm told that when looking that her voting history from other places she's lived, she doesn't have much of a voting history at all. She's been sporadic at best and hasn't really voted a lot. So some folks have raised an issue about that. But I believe that the local Democratic primary board has sent her name on with a recommendation to be on the ballot to the Democratic Party state executive committee, who will ultimately make the decision.
BLANK: Shelby County Republicans wanted to field a candidate for county mayor as well. They finally got one in John DeBerry, who is a veteran politician who also knows something about bona fides. He got kicked out of the Democratic Party in 2020 for his conservative views and has been senior advisor to Gov. Bill Lee. How did his candidacy come about and does he have a shot here?
CARPENTER: Well, I think I'd love to know a lot more about the backstory of how his candidacy came about. But what I do know is that locally the Republicans had not much luck recruiting a candidate. So, I'm sure with some help of some of the Republicans in the Shelby County legislative delegation and certainly Gov. Lee, they went after John DeBerry. In terms of whether or not DeBerry has a chance, I think there's a slim chance, but not a very good one. And the reason is that they're sort of in a Catch-22. I mean, the demographics of the county are such that it is majority Democratic. And the question that [Republican candidates] have to answer is: do you support the policies of President Trump on things like immigration, DEI, the National Guard being in Memphis. If they say "yes," then they lose swing and independent voters who they need to win, who right now -- all the national polls are very unhappy with President Trump. If they say "no," then they depress their base of Republicans who are heavy Trump supporters. So I think it's a really difficult tightrope to walk.
Mike Carpenter is principal with Carpenter Civic Strategies and a former Shelby County Commissioner.
