As the August 1st phase of the 2024 election turned into its final week, Tami Sawyer, the Democratic nominee for General Sessions Court Clerk, did not enter it by herself.
At a press conference held on the grounds of Anointed Temple of Praise on Riverdale Road, Sawyer was joined by an impressive roster of leading Democratic Party figures — including state party chair Hendrell Remus from Nashville, Shelby County Democratic chair Lexie Carter, State Representative Justin J. Pearson, Germantown Democrats president Jeff Ethridge, and numerous others.
The clerk’s race, on the county general part of the ballot, is basically the only direct test of party candidates on August 1st, and members of the group Wednesday — along with Sawyer herself — were at pains to make the point that it was not a matter of indifference who gets elected to what is not generally thought as a policy position. The Republican nominee for clerk is Lisa Arnold.
Sawyer noted that the presidential hopes of Kamala Harris, who would be the first woman of color to be elected president, carried important symbolic impact. So, she suggested, would the election of herself, as a well-known activist and as a black woman and a Democrat, to a local post of more than usual import and visibility.
Sawyer and her supporters had worried all morning about a forecast of possible rain, and they had erected a tent on the grounds just in case, As things turned out, it wasn’t needed. The first drop, and it was a light one at that, didn’t fall until the press conference was concluded.
