The District 13 seat on the Shelby County Commission was, in a partisan sense, the major swing seat in the last two county elections, when Democrat Michael Whaley defeated competitive Republican opponents Richard Morton in 2018 and Ed Apple in 2022.
District 13 sprawls across a generous section of Midtown and Northeast Memphis, and includes such neighborhoods as Central Gardens, Chickasaw Gardens, High Point Terrace, and Binghampton.
The district will draw attention again in 2026, a time when Apple is rumored to be thinking of a second try (Whaley is term-limited out). But even if no significant Republican-vs.-Democrat race develops, there will be an interesting scramble for the Democratic nomination.
One announced candidate so far is Amber Huett-Garcia, a member of the Memphis-Shelby County Schools Board, the composition of which recently became a cause célèbre on the commission, which voted in favor of conflating the board’s previously staggered terms in 2026, largely over the hot-button controversy of ex-Memphis-Shelby County Schools (MSCS) Superintendent Marie Feagins’ firing.
Huett-Garcia voted against the Feagins ouster, while one of her declared commission opponents-to-be, former MSCS counselor LaGina Mitchell-Scott, is getting stout support in her own commission bid from board member Towanna Murphy, a Feagins adversary.
The newest wrinkle on the District 13 Democratic side is the just-announced candidacy of technology consultant Lena Chipman, who, if successful, would be only the second transgender official elected in Tennessee. (Olivia Hill serves on the Nashville-Davidson County Metro Council.)
• The mayoral component of the 2026 Shelby County election got off to a fast start Tuesday night when the Germantown Democratic Club held an open forum for declared mayoral candidates at the Great Hall & Conference Center of Germantown. Scheduled to be on hand were candidates Melvin Burgess, Harold Collins, Heidi Kuhn, Mickell Lowery, and JB Smiley Jr.
The event was still pending at press time, but a report on it will be available by mid-week at memphisflyer.com.
• Some years ago, in an election year that had just begun I went to a Downtown bistro to catch a meet-and-greet by a candidate named Denise Parkinson, who was eyeing a city council seat. Or so I thought.
No sooner had I entered the smoky environs of the place than I was greeted by a stocky good-natured African-American lad who introduced himself as Antonio Parkinson and expressed gratitude that I was interested in his race for state representative. I realized that I had misread the invitation and had turned up at a wholly different event for a wholly different candidate than I’d intended.
And it didn’t take me long to realize I was in the right place after all. This Parkinson (whose nickname was “Two-Shay,” he would explain in short order) was an ebullient, likable, well-informed candidate who seemed to be running for all the right reasons — which boiled down to a desire to advance the interests of the underserved people of his North Memphis District 98.
A fireman and ex-Marine, Parkinson seemed fully capable of reaching his goals, and he communicated both leadership skills and charisma. I was unsurprised when he would go on not only to be elected but to become a power broker in his own right and a legislative leader.
I am now further unsurprised by the many nuggets and home truths in his newly published book Stop Praying for More When You’re Still Full of Sh*t!: The Raw Truth About Making Space for Your Blessings (available on Amazon), a warts-and-all record of his own (often troubled) self-development and a useful primer for the rest of us. Highly recommended.