THOMASVILLE — Many of the seats up for election this year in Thomas County will not have opposition. 

Incumbent county commissioners Jeremy Rich, Donnie Baggett, Ken Hickey and Phillip Brown qualified to run for their respective posts again. None drew any opposition. Rich and Brown are running as Democrats. Baggett and Hickey are Republicans. 

On the school board, Joy West and Sanford Hawkins qualified to run for District 1. Incumbent Nancy Hiers is not seeking another term. District 3 and District 5 incumbents Ken Harper and Leah Smith also have qualified to run again. 

Harper will face Eleanor Hall and Christy Layfield, who filed to run in District 3, in the May general primary. Smith will face Kevin Royal for the District 5 seat in May and the winner will face Democrat Aaron Williams in November. 

Ed Hopper is running unopposed for the District 7 school board seat. 

In Grady County, incumbent Ray Prince is being challenged by Marty McGuire for his county commission District 2 seat in the May Republican primary.

Phillip Drew is running unopposed for his District 5 post.

Derrick Majors, from District 2, and John White, from District 5, face no opposition in their Grady County Board of Education races. 

Joshua Bell, for state court judge, and Charles Ferenchick, for solicitor general, also face no opposition.

Three Southern Judicial Circuit Superior Court judges have announced they will seek re-election — Brian McDaniel, James Prine and Gregory Voyles.

Judge James Hardy is retiring, and three people — Catherine Mims Smith, Robert L. Moore Jr. and William Long Whitesell — have qualified to run.’

At the state level, Rep. Darlene Taylor (R-Thomasville) will face Democrat Keith Jenkins in November for her District 173 seat. 

Sam Watson (R-Moultrie) has not drawn any opposition for his District 172 seat. Dean Burke (R-Bainbridge) also is running unopposed to keep his Senate District 11 seat.

Six Republicans and one Democrat are challenging longtime U.S. House Rep. Sanford Bishop (D-Albany) for his 2nd District seat. Qualifying on the GOP side are Vivian Childs, Jeremy Hunt, Wayne Johnson, Rich Robertson, Chris West and Paul Whitehead. Joe O’Hara is challenging Bishop in the Democratic primary.

Raphael Warnock, elected to the U.S. Senate in a January 2021 runoff, faces a challenger in the Democratic primary, Tamara Johnson-Shealey. There are six people running for the Republican nomination, including current state Agriculture Commissioner Gary Black, along with Josh Clark, Kelvin King, Jonathan McColumn, Latham Saddler and Herschel Walker.

In other statewide races, incumbent Gov. Brian Kemp faces a challenge from former U.S. Sen. David Perdue, Catherine Davis, Kandiss Taylor and Tom Williams. Stacey Abrams, who lost to Kemp four years ago, is running again for the Democratic nomination.

Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan is not running for re-election, and there are a handful of candidates on both the Republican and Democrat sides. 

Vying for the Republican nod are state Sen. Burt Jones, Mack McGregor, state Sen. Butch Miller, and Jeanne Seaver. The Democrat field includes state Rep. Erick E. Allen, Charlie Bailey, Tyrone Brooks Jr., Tony Brown, Kwanza Hall, Jason T. Hayes, state Rep. Derrick L. Jackson, R. Malik, and state Rep. Renitta Shannon. Ryan Graham is running as a Libertarian.

Republican incumbent Brad Raffensperger is running for re-election to the secretary of state office but faces a number of challengers. Also running as Republicans are David Belle Isle, U.S. Rep. Jody Nice, and T.J. Hudson. Qualifying Democratic candidates are Dee Dawkins-Haigler, John Eaves, Floyd Griffin, state Rep. Bee Nguyen and Michael Owens.

Chris Carr is running for re-election as state attorney general and faces a contender, John Gordon, for the Republican nomination. Running on the Democrat side are state Sen. Jennifer Jordan and Christian Wise Smith. Martin Cowen is running as a Libertarian.

With Black’s entrance into the U.S. Senate race, the race of agriculture commissioner is for an open seat. State Sen. Tyler Harper is the lone Republican to have qualified. On the Democrat side, state Rep. Winfred Dukes, Nakita Hemingway and Fred Swann are running for the post. David Raudabaugh is running as a Libertarian.

Incumbent John King is running to remain state insurance commissioner. He faces opposition in the Republican primary from Ben Cowart and Patrick Witt. Running on the Democrat side are Raphael Baker, Janice Laws Robinson and Matthew Wilson.

Richard Woods is running for re-election as state school superintendent and faces former state school superintendent John Barge in the Republican primary. The Democrat candidates are Currey Hitchens, Jaha Howard, James Morrow Jr. and Alisha Thomas Search.

Mark Butler’s decision not to run again for labor commissioner has opened that seat. Three Republicans — Kartik Bhatt, Mike Can and Bruce Thompson — are running for the GOP nomination. The Democrat field includes state Rep. William Boddie Jr., Thomas Dean, Nicole Horn, state Sen. Lester Jackson III and Nadia Surrency.