Municipal primary election day
Apr 1, 2025- The race to determine the Republican candidate for Horn Lake mayor will go to a runoff between a current alderman and a former mayor.
In voting on Tuesday, the three-person primary election saw current Alderman-at-Large Danny Klein outpoll former Mayor Nat Baker 485-418. Ward 4 Alderman Dave Young garnered 190 votes.
Because no candidate received a majority of the votes cast, Klein and Baker will meet in a runoff election on April 22. The survivor of that election then must meet Democratic candidate Jimmy Stokes June 3 to determine who becomes the new mayor as current Mayor Allen Latimer retires.
Returning to the political ring after serving as mayor, Baker felt the difference between him and Klein can be made up in the next three weeks.
“It was a good race between all of us,” Baker said. “I think we can overcome the little bit of loss that we fell into, but I think we’re going to do good in the next three weeks.”
After the vote totals were received Tuesday night, Young told DeSoto County News he would be endorsing Klein in the runoff race.
The mayoral race on the Republican side is one of four runoffs that will take place three weeks from now in Horn Lake.
With Klein in the run for mayor, the open Alderman-at-Large Republican runoff will have Heather DuPree against former alderman Donnie “Chigger” White. DuPree finished with 519 votes to White’s 480 votes. Ben Piercy was a distant third.
In Ward 1, William “Bill” Adelman (80 votes) will run against Joseph “Joe” Zachary (62 votes), while in Ward 4, it will be Dylan Smith (74 votes) running against Kirby Carter (51 votes).
Horn Lake is the only DeSoto County city where there will be Democratic challenges to whoever advances past the primary in each race when the June 3 general election takes place.
Elsewhere in the county Tuesday night, Kristoffer “Kit” Kitchens unseated Hernando Ward 5 Alderwoman Beth Rone Ross 217-147 and was elected to the seat with no Democratic opponent.
It will be the same for the survivor of the Alderman-at-Large GOP primary in Hernando, where former alderman Jeff Hobbs earned 612 votes to 464 for newcomer Lauren Leigh McLendon. Jarrett Mashaw was third at 197 votes.
Hobbs and McLendon face each other in the April 22 runoff.
Hernando Mayor Chip Johnson and the other incumbents running for reelection advanced with no opposition on Tuesday.
There were two contested primaries in Olive Branch and both saw candidates elected. Ward 2 Alderwoman Pat Hamilton won reelection over Cynthia Manzo 353-67, and a three-candidate race in Ward 3 was won by former police chief Don Gammage 310-99 for Dion M. Jones. Mike Hutchins was third in that race.
Southaven Mayor Darren Musselwhite easily won reelection over challenger Tommy Henley 1,366-442. Judy Jenkins-Lewis outpolled Timothy Putt 237-103 to win the Ward 1 Alderman seat that current board member Kristian Kelly is leaving. Meanwhile Joel Gallagher won reelection in Ward 4 and Raymond Flores Jr. was reelected in Ward 6.
Here is a link to the spreadsheet with vote totals from today’s primary elections in DeSoto County:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/e/2PACX-1vRS6nfV47PsWez1BURLYzYQGTAlMs0DVTQxX638fnML_Wr6e0gZDxAN2E-bpv6qzJQUOvvfWVa2Qz1w/pubhtml?gid=0&single=true
