Roanoke County Republicans turned away an appointed clerk of court Tuesday while voters in Botetourt County ousted an incumbent supervisor and voters in Buchanan County rejected a three-term incumbent commonwealth’s attorney.
While statewide attention was focused on General Assembly primaries, some localities in Southwest Virginia also held Republican primaries for local offices.
In Roanoke County, Michael Galliher took almost 59% of the vote for clerk of court. Rhonda Perdue was named clerk in February, following the retirement of Steve McGraw. She polled 41% of the vote.
The other Roanoke County Republican race was anticlimactic. Tom McCracken withdrew from his challenge against Catawba District Supervisor Martha Hooker last week. The election went on anyway, and she took nearly 89% of the vote.
In Botetourt County, two incumbent Republican supervisors faced challenges. Blue Ridge District Supervisor Billy Martin lost to Walter Michael, 58% to 42%. That loss came after Martin was involved in an incident with an antiporn protester who swore out a misdemeanor assault warrant against the supervisor. Valley District Supervisor Mac Scothorn survived his challenge, turning back Robert Young by a 68% to 32% margin.
In Carroll County and Galax, Sheriff Kevin Kemp turned back a challenge from Ronnie Horton, taking 54% of the vote to Horton’s 46%.
In other Carroll County races, Greg Horton won the Republican nomination for at-large supervisor, taking almost 62% of the vote against Shirley Ann Bunn, while Malette Pickett won the treasurer’s race, taking 61% of the vote against 26% for Joey Dickson and 13% for David Cooley.
In Buchanan County, which held its first-ever Republican primary for local offices, one of the candidates was Commonwealth’s Attorney Gerald Arrington, who had been elected three times as a Democrat. He switched parties last year but lost to Nikki Stiltner, who took 60% of the vote to his 40%.
Trey Adkins, a three-term supervisor from the Knox District, also switched parties to run as a Republican. He won with 69% of the vote over Pamela Wilson’s 31%, even though he faces dozens of felony charges stemming from a yearslong Virginia State Police investigation, including 34 counts of making a false statement, 11 counts of violating absentee voting procedures, 11 counts of forging public records and eight counts of embezzling public money. According to online court records, a trial has been scheduled for August.
In other Buchanan County Republican primaries:
Christie Stiltner defeated Alisha Stiltner for the clerk of court nomination, by 63% to 37%.
David Rose defeated Eddie Sturgill for Prater District supervisor, 73% to 27%.
Lee Dotson defeated Ryan Clevinger for North Grundy supervisor, 61% to 39%.