Columbus Ward 5 councilman Kabir Karriem easily defeated a pair of write-in candidates in Tuesday’s Democratic Primary in the District 41 House of Representative race.
With no opponent in the Nov. 3 general election, Karriem, 42, will move into the seat held by representative Esther Harrison, who died on June 10 while campaigning for a fifth term in office.
Karriem received 1,895 votes (68.9 percent) with write-in candidates Nicole Clinkscales and Tiffany Sturdivant combining to collect 857 votes.
Initially, the primary pitted Karriem, a two-term city councilman, against Harrison. Two weeks after Harrison’s death, Clinkscales resigned her position as municipal court judge and entered the race as a write-in candidate, as did Sturdivant, who has served as campaign manager for city councilman Marty Turner.
“After Representative Harrison made her transition, I felt that I would be an effective legislator,” Karriem said today. “When the write-in candidates got into the race, it was just a matter of continuing to keep on doing what I was doing. I never felt it would be a close contest.”
Karriem said he is looking forward to the 2016 legislative session, which begins in January.
“It’s a learning curve, I am sure,” he said. “My focus is to learn as much as I can as quickly as I can. All I want to do is represent the folks who sent me to Jackson and do all I can for them.”
Karriem said he will continue to serve on the city council through the council’s last meeting of the year in December.
He and other new legislators will be sworn in at the beginning of the January legislative session.
Slim Smith is a columnist and feature writer for The Dispatch. His email address is [email protected].
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