Tom Watson and Pam Smith-Wright collected the most votes in the primary and will square off in the General Election this November with hopes of winning the mayoral seat for the City of Owensboro. The top eight vote-getters in the City Commission race have also moved on to the General Election. Here’s how the votes shook out for both primary races.
MAYOR
Only two of the five candidates in the mayoral primary advance to the November General Election.
Watson, the incumbent, placed first with 2,136 votes (36.30%). Smith-Wright, a long-time City Commissioner came in second with 1,878 votes (31.92%). Not advancing are Ron Payne (1,232 votes, 20.94%), Titus Willis (393 votes, 6.68%), and Sharon Castle (245 votes, 4.16%).
Watson first served as mayor from 2005-2008; nearly a decade later he ran again and was elected to his second term in 2016, and he’s now serving his third term. He said there’s still work to do, and he hopes to continue to be the one to lead the charge.
“We’ve got a lot of things to be done,” he said. “We’re constantly working on economic development for our corporate citizens. I wake up every morning thinking about economic development and what we can do to help the community. That’ll be the main goal and it always has been. Other things will kind of fall into place as they come out.”
Upon announcing his bid for re-election last year, Watson said he hoped to continue working on the City of Owensboro’s connections at the county, regional, state, and even federal levels. He said that his connections with government leaders in Frankfort, Washington, and Indianapolis are relationships he has fortified over his time as mayor.
“I think you’d be hard-pressed to find anyone who’s really established more relationships with Frankfort and Washington and Indianapolis, actually over the past 40 years,” Watson said previously.
Smith-Wright previously ran for mayor in 2020, when she placed third with about 22% of the votes; Watson won with about 40% of the votes. Prior to her first mayoral campaign, Smith-Wright served five consecutive terms as City Commissioner. She was elected to her current and sixth overall term as commissioner in the 2022 election.
Smith-Wright is hopeful that she’ll win this time around, saying it’s time for new leadership in the City’s highest elected seat.
“I’m excited. Now the work begins,” she said. “When I say ‘it’s the Wright time’ I mean, it’s the right time for change. This is the right time for Owensboro to do something different. This is the right time for our community to come together.”
When she first announced her bid for mayor, Smith-Wright said one of her goals is to be more inclusive of all citizens when identifying and working to solve problems within the city, saying she feels there are people who are currently being left out of the conversations.
“We have to be able to listen to all of the voices in the community because every person that lives here pays taxes, and they all deserve the same amount of respect and for the city to have an ear to what they are saying as well,” she said previously.
CITY COMMISSION
The City Commission primary only slightly narrowed the field, as eight of the nine candidates advance to the General Election. All four City Commission seats will be up for grabs in November.
Those advancing, listed in order of the number of votes received in the primary, are:
(Click names for the bios OT previously published for each candidate.)
- Bob Glenn — 2,896 votes (15.86%)
- Sharon NeSmith — 2,887 votes (15.81%)
- Mark Castlen — 2,596 votes (14.21%)
- Jeff Sanford — 2,447 votes (13.40%)
- Curtis Maglinger — 2,097 votes (11.48%)
- Rafe Buckner — 1,843 votes (10.09%)
- Robert Morris — 1,241 votes (6.80%)
- Tyler Goad — 1,210 votes (5.73%)
Not advancing is Reggie Helm, who received 1,046 votes (5.73 %).
NATIONAL RACES
Here is a look at the other races on the ballot:
Presidential: Republican
Donald J. Trump – 3,553 votes, 78.54%
Nikki R. Haley – 479 votes, 10.59%
*UNCOMMITTED* – 220 votes, 4.86%
Ron DeSantis – 162 votes, 3.58%
Chris Christie – 56 votes, 1.24%
Vivek Ramaswamy – 30 votes, .66%
Ryan L. Binkley – 24 votes, .53%
Presidential: Democrat
Joseph R. Biden Jr. – 3,194 votes, 72.77%
*UNCOMMITTED* – 788 votes, 17.95%
Marianne Williamson – 227 votes, 5.17%
Dean Phillips – 180 votes, 4.10%
United States Representative in Congress 2nd Congressional District
Hank Linderman – 2,351 votes, 62.40%
William Dakota Compton – 1,413 votes, 37.54%
