A race for a county commission seat in Sumner County, north of Nashville, ended in a tie last month. Now the county commission has the choice to either hold a runoff or select their preferred candidate. That decision is on Thursday’s agenda. But commissioners may have already made up their mind.
The District 13 race between Democrat Brenda Dotson and Republican Terri Boyt came down to a tie. They each got 398 votes.
Sumner Democratic Party vice chair Cole Shepherd says the outcome caught them by surprise. If Dotson is seated, he thinks she’d be the first Democrat on the Sumner Commission this century.
“Before 2000, certainly, we had some, but after 2000, I’m not aware of one,” Shepherd said.
The district is newly drawn and is the closest to being minority led. Dotson, a Black woman, would also be the only commissioner of color.
“That district is the most diverse district in this county,” Shepherd said. “It’s not quite a majority-minority district, but it’s within a dozen people of being a majority-minority district.”
Commissioners had a chance earlier this month to send the race to a runoff in November but decided to delay a decision until the new commissioners are sworn in on Sept. 1. Now, Dotson is worried that her Republican opponent, Terri Boyt, has already been penciled in.
“Before they had that last meeting where the suggestion was to go to a runoff, they had already created a seating chart that had been turned in with her name on it,” Dotson said.
Also in Boyt’s favor, a majority of the new commissioners are backed by the Sumner County Constitutional Republicans. The group aims to recruit what it calls “God-fearing constitutional patriots.” Chairman Kurt Riley spoke to the Nashville Tea Party earlier this month.
“Yeah, there’s 24 on the commission. You need 13 to have a majority, and we have 13 people that we endorsed that will be stepping in those seats,” Riley said.
Boyt, who’s backed by the group, would make it 14.
Shepherd with the Sumner County Democrats says it’s clear the cards are stacked against Dotson.
“On the Sumner County Constitutional Republicans Facebook page, that’s exactly what they’ve been calling for publicly. You know, ‘If you’re one of us, you know how you have to vote,’” Shepherd said.
This post is also from that same Facebook page.
That was posted prior to Sumner County’s last meeting on Aug. 15 where commissioners rolled the decision on how to break the tie between Dotson and Boyt.
Members of the public were not allowed to speak about the race during the meeting. Democrats hope they’ll be able to push for a runoff during Thursday’s meeting, which starts at 7 p.m.
Outgoing Republican Commissioner Baker Ring made the motion last meeting to postpone the decision. He told WPLN News that he’s heard from residents who want a runoff as well as those who would rather commissioners pick the winner.
Outgoing Republican Commissioner Caroline Krueger says, if the Constitutional Republican group believes in democracy, they’d want a runoff.
“The most constitutional thing to do is have a runoff election,” Krueger said. “There’s absolutely no doubt about that.”
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