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Murphy – Cherokee County’s 2022 primary election ballot is set.
A few late entrants joined the race for local offices last week, including two more candidates vying for seats on the county board of commissioners. Filing closed at noon Friday. All of the local candidates are Republicans.
Jeff Tatham, a member of the Cherokee County Board of Education, joined the race for the District 1 commissioner’s seat held by Cal Stiles. Steve Jordan, a member of the Andrews Board of Aldermen who previously served as a county commissioner as a Democrat, was already challenging Stiles for the position.
In District 3, J.R. Carroll became the fourth candidate to enter the race for the seat occupied by Gary “Hippie” Westmoreland, who is not seeking re-election. Ben Adams, John Worden and Mark Kephart are also seeking the District 3 post.
The only other person to file for local office last week was Jeannie Gaddis, the third contender for the District 2 post on the board of education. Allen Denny and Andrew Zenobi also are running for the seat.
Meanwhile, a federal judge Friday cleared the way for U.S. Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R-N.C.) to seek election in North Carolina’s newly drawn 11th District, which includes Cherokee County. U.S. District Judge Richard Myers blocked an effort by voters and activists in North Carolina who
sought to bar Cawthorn from seeking re-election on the grounds that the first-term representative was an “insurrectionist” for his support of rioters who attacked the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
The challenge to Cawthorn’s candidacy hinged on the third section of the 14th Amendment, which was adopted during Reconstruction to punish members of the Confederacy by prohibiting officeholders from returning to elected positions if they supported an insurrection. Myers ruled that a Civil War amnesty law passed by Congress in 1872 effectively repealed the 14th Amendment’s disqualification clause.
Cawthorn announced Feb. 28 that he will run in the 11th Congressional District following an overhaul of North Carolina’s maps. He previously said he would seek re-election in North Carolina’s 13th Congressional District under maps originally proposed by the General Assembly.
The 13th District largely would have taken Cawthorn out of western North Carolina. It consisted of seven counties, but nothing farther west than Polk County. Cawthorn defended his decision at the time as a “move to take more ground for constitutional conservatism.”
After a late switch to the newly drawn 11th District, Cawthorn is instead vying to continue representing far-western North Carolina. He was back on the campaign trail last week and visited Cherokee County on Friday, according to posts on his official Facebook account.
The statewide primary will be held Tuesday, May 17, while the general election will be held Tuesday, Nov. 8. The following candidates, all Republicans, have registered to run for county offices.
Board of Commissioners
District 1: Cal Stiles (incumbent), Steve Jordan, Jeff Tatham.
District 3: Ben Adams, John Worden, Mark Kephart, J.R. Carroll.
District 4: Dan Eichenbaum (incumbent), John Midkiff, Joe Simonds.
Board of Education
At-large: Keesha N. Curtis (incumbent), Steve Coleman.
District 2: Allen Denny, Andrew Zenobi, Jeannie Gaddis.
District 3: Joey Shore (incumbent), Jason Murphy, Jose Barreiro, Leslie Gibson, Shannon Raper.
Clerk of Superior Court
Roger Gibson (incumbent).
Register of Deeds
Karen Mintz Wright, Stephanie L. Swanson.
Cherokee County Sheriff
Joe Wood, Dustin D. Smith, Heath Woodard.