Rheunte E. Benson

2026 Candidacy

• Democratic candidate for Shelby County Criminal Court Clerk in the May 5, 2026 primary. (SCEC Final Candidate List, May 5 2026)

Current role

• General Sessions Criminal Administrator, Shelby County clerk's office. (Commercial Appeal via Yahoo)
• Listed in the National Association for Court Management The Court Manager new-members directory (Vol. 34, No. 3, Fall 2019) as "Administrator of General Sessions Criminal Court, Memphis, Tennessee." (NACM)

Career

• Per her own campaign statements, 30 years of experience in the General Sessions Court Clerk's Office / court operations and leadership. (Commercial Appeal via Yahoo, Q&A)

Prior candidacies

• 2020 Democratic primary, Shelby County General Sessions Court Clerk — lost to incumbent Joe Brown. (Commercial Appeal via Yahoo, Memphis Flyer)
• 2024 Democratic primary, Shelby County General Sessions Court Clerk — lost to Tami Sawyer in a multi-candidate field that included incumbent Joe Brown and Shelandra Ford. (Ballotpedia, Tri-State Defender)
• Prior campaigns used electbensonforclerk.com and the Facebook page facebook.com/BensonforClerk2020. The campaign site was not reachable during this research.

Stated priorities

From her 2024 campaign, which focused on a closely related office:

• Improving customer service and community access.
• Upgrading technology, including e-filing. In 2024 she noted: "Shelby County (general sessions) is one of the largest court systems and we have yet to get into e-filing." (Commercial Appeal via Yahoo)
• Completing a case-management system for the criminal division and advancing a new system for the civil division. (Q&A)

Compiled from publicly available web sources on 2026-04-18. The 2026 race (Criminal Court Clerk) is a distinct office from her 2020 and 2024 runs (General Sessions Court Clerk). Education and family background were not located in online sources.

Public filings

Tennessee law requires candidates and officeholders to file campaign finance reports and a statement of interest. None of the state or county sites below supports direct links to an individual record — you'll need to search by last name on each.

Campaign finance

• State offices (Governor, US Senate, US Rep, TN Senate, TN House, State Executive Committee) — Tennessee Registry of Election Finance . Click Search for Candidates and PACs, enter last name “Benson”, and submit.
• Shelby County and municipal offices (County Mayor, Commissioner, Sheriff, School Board, court clerks, municipal alderman, etc.) — Shelby County Public Campaign Finance Portal . Select the election year and search by candidate name (“Benson”).

Statement of interest (conflict of interest)

• Required for state and local officials and candidates — Tennessee Ethics Commission Conflict of Interest Search . Enter last name “Benson”and, if needed, select the applicable position from the dropdown.