There will be races to fill several Hunt County offices next year, while the incumbents in many others have essentially won re-election due to no one having filed to run against them.
The county saw only one candidate file on the Democratic Party side this time around.
Incumbent Hunt County District Attorney Noble D. Walker Jr.; County Court-at-Law Judge No. 2 F. Duncan Thomas; Justice of the Peace Precinct 1, Place 1 Wayne Money; Sheriff Randy Meeks; Tax Assessor-Collector Randy Wineinger; County Attorney Joel Littlefield; County Commissioner Precinct 1 Eric Evans and County Constable Precinct 1 Terry Jones did not draw any opposition by Monday evening’s deadline to file for nominations on the March 1 Republican Party primary ballot.
Assistant Hunt County District Attorney Keli Aiken; Shawn Council, adjunct professor of law at Texas A&M University-Commerce; and local attorneys Craig Black and Katherine Ferguson have each filed for the GOP nomination in the race for judge of the 354th District Court.
The race for the Republican nomination for U.S. Representative District 4, which includes Hunt and Rockwall counties, is between the incumbent, John Ratcliffe of Rockwall, who has filed seeking re-election to a second term, and Lou Gigliotti of Princeton.
No Democratic Party or third party candidates were reported to have filed for the office as of Saturday afternoon.
A similar situation has developed for the office of Texas House of Representatives District 2, where incumbent Dan Flynn is seeking the Republican Party nomination as he runs for an eighth term. Bryan Slaton of Royse City has also filed seeking the GOP nod for the office, which represents Hunt, Hopkins and Van Zandt counties in Austin. No Democrats or other candidates have announced or filed for the position.
Incumbent County Commissioner for Precinct 3 Phillip Martin filed for the Republican nomination in seeking re-election and will be opposed in the primary next March by Wayne Middleton and Larry Middlebrooks.
Wayne “Doc” Pierce was the only Hunt County candidate to file as a Democrat, as he seeks re-election to the office Constable, Precinct 2. Charles W. Adams has filed for the Republican nomination for the position.
Incumbent Constable for Precinct 3 Don Morrison has filed for the GOP nod, and will face Nathan Ehrhart in the primary.
Incumbent Constable for Precinct 4 Kent E. Layton has filed for the Republican primary in seeking re-election, and will face Clint Landrith.
Early voting for the primary elections is scheduled Feb. 16-26, 2016.