Ballot Project

← Back to Hamilton County, Tennessee: Election on 2026-05-05

Contest for County Mayor (Democratic Primary)

County Hamilton County
primary - Partisan - Hamilton County Mayor

About this office

Term length: 4 years.

This role calls for

  • Executive management of a metropolitan county government of roughly 910,000 residents and a billion-dollar-plus consolidated budget across health, public works, corrections, the Sheriff's Office (administrative side), and many smaller departments.
  • Ability to negotiate and defend an annual budget before a 13-member County Commission.
  • Intergovernmental capacity: coordinating with the City of Memphis, six suburban municipalities, the State of Tennessee, and federal agencies, especially on shared services like MATA, MLGW, EDGE, and the Health Department.
  • Working familiarity with Tennessee county-government law, the Shelby County Charter, open-meetings, and procurement rules.
  • Public-facing communication and crisis-management skills for a large, diverse, news-attentive county.

Derived from the office's statutory duties and operational reality. Candidate summaries below map each candidate's documented experience to these requirements.

Campaigns

Democratic Primary 1 candidate
Mark Herndon

Mark Herndon

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No campaign summary available.
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