The 2024 primary election cycle has ended and one familiar face survived the sheriff’s race while a newcomer emerged victorious in the tax commissioner’s election.
Coffee County chief deputy Fred Cole defeated challenger Daniel Paulk, himself a former law enforcement officer, 3,477 votes to 2,334. It was a rare instance of the candidate who placed first in the primary also winning the run-off. Usually, the candidate in second place has the advantage going into the run-off. However, in this case, the gap between the two candidates in the primary was too much for Paulk to overcome. Cole came within a few votes of winning the primary outright – an even rarer occurrence when three or more candidates are in a race. Cole missed winning the primary by about half a percentage point.
In the tax commissioner’s race, challenger Angela Harper made the run-off by the slimmest of margins. In her case, history held as Harper, the second-place candidate in the primary, defeated incumbent Shanda Henderson 3,069 to 2,690. Henderson had won the primary with 43.85 percent of the vote to Harper’s 28.48 percent. Harper made the run-off by less than a percentage point.
In November, Cole will face opposition from Democrat Ben Munford while Harper will also have a Democratic opponent in Carlos Wilkerson.