RISON - By the end of the second day of the 2026 primary filing period, three of the four announced candidates for Cleveland County Judge and three candidates for Sheriff had already made it official by filikng to seek the Republican nomination for those respective offices.The filing period for those interested in running in the 2026. partisan primary election began at noon Monday, Nov. 2, and will end at noon Wednesday, Nov. 12. The primary election will be held March 3, 2026.Cleveland County Judge candi-dates Jim Houston of the Rye community, Stephen McClellan of New Edinburg and Rosemary Sinclair of the Staves community all filed for the Republican primary on Monday. All three had previously announced their intentions to run.A fourth candidate who announced his intentions to run for county judge, Rickey Spencer of Kingsland, had not filed by the close of business on Tuesday, Nov. 4.The county judge's office is vacant following the passing of the late County Judge Jimmy Cum-mings in August. His appointed replacement, Jimmy Dale Adair, is ineligible to run due to state law.Meanwhile, two of the previously announced candidates for sheriff formally filed for the position while one dropped out and a new one joined. Like the county judge's position, the sheriff's position is also vacant with the announcement that Sheriff Jack Rodgers will not seek re-election.Brad Young of the Rowell community announced his decision to run for sheriff last week and formally filed to run for sheriff on Monday. The other two announced candidates, Lee Freeman and Keden Shrum, both of Rison, filed for the race on Tuesday. All three are running in the Republican primary. Michael Poss, a Cleveland County Sheriff's deputy who had announced his intentions to run in April, announced late last week via his social media page that he had decided not to run. In his announcement, he endorsed Young for sheriff.Those were the only locally contested r...
To access content, please login or purchase a subscription.