Bartlett Bank president Harold Byrd announced Tuesday that, as long expected, he will be a candidate in next year’s Democratic primary for the office of Shelby County mayor. Among the other Democratic candidates will be county commissioner Deidre Malone, who has scheduled a formal announcement for this week also.
Byrd, a well-known University of Memphis booster and former state representative from Bartlett, has also run for the 7th District congressional seat and launched a race for county mayor in 2002 before deciding to withdraw.
A list of Byrd supporters circulated by email on Tuesday encompassed a wide range of influential people in Shelby County — running from civil rights luminaries Maxine and Vasco Smith to former county mayor Bill Morris to former MLGW head Larry Papasan to C.M.E. Bishop William N. Graves.
Another Byrd backer, longtime political broker Sidney Chism, is a commission colleague of Malone, who no doubt will unveil her own lengthy list of supporters.
