Veteran party activist Lexie Carter was selected the new chair of the Shelby County Democratic Party in a Zoom election on Saturday.
The vote, by participating members of the party’s executive committee and grass-roots council, was a close one: 52-49 for Carter over runner-up Jesse Huseth.
Both candidates strongly favored retaining party primaries for county elections, and both wanted to have such primaries as well for city-government elections, which have so far been non-partisan. Doing the latter, said Huseth, would prevent “masquerading” with pseudo-democratic positions in city elections.
Carter emphasized fundraising as a priority (“I raise money, and I do it well,” she said), while Huseth underscored the need to improve voter turnout.
Carter advocated apportioning members of the executive committee and grass-roots council by pegging the positions to state House district. (At present, these positions are derived via County Commission districts.)
The party reorganization process began two weeks ago when members of the executive committee and grass-roots council won their positions at a preliminary meeting at First Baptist Church, Broad.
