In Republican-dominated Cullman County, as well as many parts of Alabama, this year’s GOP party primary will decide the outcome of the majority of local and state races long before the arrival of the Nov. 5 General Election.

With the field set for this year’s cycle, local candidates are running only for a small handful of contested offices, though two of them — county schools superintendent and circuit judge — carry high-profile significance.

In the first contested county schools superintendent’s race in more than a decade, incumbent Dr. Shane Barnette will face challenger Morris Williams, a longtime school teacher at Holly Pond, in the GOP primary election on March 5. Barnette has remained in the superintendent’s seat as a board appointee since 2016, long before local voters approved a 2022 referendum measure that converts the office back to an elected one for the first time since 2013.

Two local attorneys will vie to fill outgoing Circuit Judge Martha Williams’ Place 2 seat on Alabama’s 32nd Judicial Circuit in the upcoming primary. Current Cullman County Commission attorney Emily Niezer Johnston will face local private attorney Melvin Hasting on March 5 to claim Williams’ available seat, with the winner joining presiding Judge Greg Nicholas to serve as one of Cullman County’s two circuit judges.

Both Niezer Johnston and Hasting have sought local office in the past: Hasting lost previous bids in 2006 and 2012 to win the circuit judge’s nomination and subsequently ran unsuccessfully for both the Alabama House District 9 seat (2014) and the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals (2020). Niezer Johnston also ran for the 2012 GOP nomination for the circuit judge’s seat, which Williams eventually won in a runoff election against local attorney Steve Smith.

Only one other contested race in this year’s GOP primary will field a local candidate, though the office he’s seeking has a statewide reach. Cullman attorney Stephen Parker will challenge one-term incumbent Chad Hanson of Trussville for the seat on the Alabama Court of Civil Appeals that Hanson currently holds. The race marks Parker’s first attempt at winning elected office; Hanson was first elected to the position in 2018.

Two other local races also fall during this year’s election cycle, though their present incumbents, each seeking reelection, will face no opposition. Current Place 2 District Judge Rusty Turner and Circuit Clerk Lisa McSwain each is expected to return for another term in office, with no other candidates having qualified to run against them in either the GOP primary or in the General Election.

With the U.S. presidency on this year’s ballot, both the party primaries and the General Election are likely to draw heavy voter turnout. The party primary elections will be held on Tuesday, March 5, with a Tuesday, April 16 runoff determining any undecided party races. The General Election will be held on Tuesday, Nov. 5.