Houston Wins County Judge Runoff

RISON - Jim Houston of the Rye community won the Republican primary runoff over Stephen McClellan of New Edinburg, 568-435, Tuesday for Cleveland County Judge. Houston will be unopposed in the upcoming November general election since there are no other candidates in the race. He will assume office on Jan. 1, 2027.Current County Judge Don Triplett was ineligible to run since state law prohibits an appointee to a county office to run for that seat. The Cleveland County Quorum Court appointed Triplett as county judge this year following the deaths of former County Judge Jimmy Cummings and his appointee, Jimmy Dale AdairHouston and McClellan finished first and second, respectively, in a four-way race for county judge during the Republican primary election on March 3. Since none of the candidates received more than 50 percent of the vote, the top two finishers moved on to Tuesday’s runoff.During the primary, Houston received 622 votes (34 percent) McClellan 525 (29 percent), Rickey Spencer 387 (21 percent) and Rosemary Sinclair 295 (16 percent).Houston received 56.6 percent of the runoff vote while McClellan received 43.4 percent.A native of Drew County, Houston said he moved to the Rye community two years ago to be closer to his children and grandchildren.He retired after spending more than 30 years in operations management that took him to jobs across the U.S. and Asia. He previously served two terms as a justice of the peace on the Faulkner County Quorum Court, representing the Mayflower area.Both candidates were at the Cleveland County Courthouse as the results came in. McClellan went over to congratulate Houston on his win just before 8:30 p.m. as the final box was being tallied.Houston won 11 of the 17 voting precincts in the county. McClellan performed well at the polling sites around his native New Edinburg as well as Kingsland. McClellan also won in the Whiteville township in northern Cleve...