Challengers defeat incumbents in race for NC board of education seats
By JIM BROOKS
Nelson County Gazette / WBRT Radio
Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2024 — The challengers for the two Nelson County school board seats on Tuesday’s ballot were each successful in unseating the incumbent candidate.
In the race for the District 2 school board seat, Joedy Gilliland won in a landslide victory with 73 percent of the vote to defeat incumbent board member Diane Berry.
In the race for the District 5 school board seat 5, Dr. Karen Lee narrowly defeated Nicole Milburn by a 36-vote margin. As votes were tallied on election night, the race stayed extremely close.
Milburn outpaced Lee by 198 votes at the Bloomfield Middle School polling location. But Lee received substantially more votes than Milburn at Cox’s Creek Elementary, the Nelson County Public Library, and Nelson County High School.
BARDSTOWN CITY COUNCIL. All six incumbent candidates will return to the Bardstown City Council for another two-year term starting Jan. 1, 2025.
The top vote-getter again was Roland “Coach Roe” Williams, following by Joe Buckman, Bill Sheckles, Betty Kelley Hart, Frankie Hibbs and David Dones.
Challenger Angel Thompson was the seventh-highest vote getter, with fewer votes than David Dones.
VOTER TURNOUT. The eight voting centers operating on Tuesday saw very heavy turnout, with waits and some locations stretch to more than 90 minutes. Turnout for Nelson County was 63 percent, the highest turnout in recent history.
PRESIDENT / VICE PRESIDENT. Former President Donald Trump easily carried Nelson County, with 70 percent of the vote.
CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT 1. Nelson County residents voted “Yes” to Amendment 1 by a nearly 2-to-1 margine.
Some people questioned the need for this amendment, because it is already illegal for non-citizens to vote in state elections. The Kentucky General Assembly would have to take action to make it legal to allow non-citizens to vote in state elections.
CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT 2. Despite the millions of dollars poured into the campaign to convince state residents to approve Amendment 2, 64 percent of Nelson County residents voted “No” against what was known as the “school choice amendment.”
The amendment would have removed the protections on public school funding provided by the state constitution and opened the door for giving state education tax dollars to private schools.
MEDICAL MARIJUANA. Residents of both the City of Bardstown and Nelson County overwhelming voted to allow the establishment of medical marijuana dispensaries and other cannabis-related business by a 78 percent and 73 percent margin, respectively.
U.S. REP DISTRICT 2. Rep. Brett Guthrie cruised to an easy victory or his Democratic challenger, periennial candidate Hank Linderman with 72 percent of the vote in Nelson County.
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