Rickman-Simmons Take Victories in Republican Primary Runoff for Stephens County Commission

The Stephens County Commission will have three new commissioners in 2023 as a result of the Republican Primary Runoff on Tuesday.

In County Commission Post 4, the challenger Chris Rickman defeated the incumbent James Addison. Rickman received a total of 937 votes to Addison’s 756. The totals for Rickman were 573 in advance voting, 313 on election day, and 51 by absentee. Addison had 426 in advance, 255 on election day, and 75 by absentee.

Rickman will now join Chuck Wright with new commission seats in January.

In the Post 1 runoff, Tara Simmons defeated Dennis Black and will now face Democrat Kathy Pauly and Libertarian Craig Oglesby in November. Simmons won the vote by 54 votes with a total of 867 to Black’s 813. Afterwards Simmons thanked her supporters ” It was a very close margin and I just want to thank everybody that came out and voted and all of my supporters that called people, that reached out to people, and sent text messages because I wouldn’t be here without you.”

The turnout for the Runoff was much lower than the Primary on May 24th with over 2100 votes not cast the 2nd time around.

Again, Chris Rickman will be the new Stephens County Commissioner in Post 4, and Tara Simmons will the Republican in the Post 1 General Election in November.