Mayor’s race in primary runoff April 22

A battle for the election of the next mayor of the City Holly Springs is underway with incumbent Sharon Gipson, who is completing her first term, in a face-off with contender Charles Terry in the April 22 primary runoff.

Unofficial election results released April 1, showed Terry (481 votes) with a 53 vote lead over Gipson (428 votes). Former mayor Andre DeBerry came in third with 320 votes and former Holly Springs police chief Dwight Harris, garnered 239 votes.

The winner of the primary runoff for mayor faces independent candidate, a former alderman- at-large Tim Liddy and Rodney Lowe in the June 3 general election.

In the alderman-at-large race, the primary election winner is incumbent Dexter Shipp with 987 votes to Thelbert Lamonte Lesure’s 462 votes.

In the Ward 1 primary, Sandra “Sunshine Lady” Hodges was top vote getter with 171 votes to Terri Harvey’s 76 votes. Hodges faces independent candidate Kylon Freeman in the June 3 general election.

In Ward 2, incumbent Andre Jones ran unopposed in the primary election garnering 302 votes. He faces independent candidates Le’Kesha De- Berry and Lennell “Big Luke” Lucas in the June 3 general election. Lucas served one term as alderman of Ward 2 during the former mayor Kelvin Buck’s administration.

In Ward 3, Jim Moore (225 votes) was the winner over Columbus Bell (178 votes).

Moore faces first time independent candidate Ricky Raimey Sr. in the June 3 general election.

Incumbent Patricia Merriweater won her position as alderman of Ward 4 garnering 238 votes to Demarcus Jones 174 votes. Jones had submitted a letter of withdrawal from the race but remained on the ballot because the ballots were already printed and some absentee voting had already commenced before he withdrew from the race.

Ishmel Edwards won the race for election commissioner taking 876 votes to Sara Power’s 564.

Voter turnout was 1,504.

The votes reported are the unofficial 2025 Democratic Primary Election results.