Chuck Espy

CLARKSDALE – After heated debates, multiple forums, and social media rants, former state representative Chuck Espy won the majority of votes in a Democratic primary runoff election Tuesday against incumbent Bill Luckett.

In unofficial results announced Tuesday evening at City Hall, Espy led with 2,356 votes to Luckett’s 1,674 votes.

“The victory is really for the people,” Espy said. “You can see in the faces, and the hearts and minds of those who are out here tonight. They didn’t have a voice in City Hall and now they have a voice, and they are going to have a voice on day one when I walk in that door.”

Espy said it’s good to see the people coming together. “You see the crowd. It’s still a party going on Ashton, and it’s in the heart of Clarksdale.”

Espy lost to Luckett in the 2013 Democratic primary in a race to succeed his father, Henry Espy, who was the city’s first black mayor and served 28 years.

Luckett could not be reached for comment.

In the run-off race for city commisioner of Ward 3, Willie Turner, Jr won with 552 votes against Orlando Bell with 286 votes.

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Aallyah Wright is a native of Clarksdale, and was a Mississippi Delta reporter covering education and local government. She was also a weekly news co-host on WROX Radio (97.5 FM) and collaborator with StoryWorks/Reveal Labs from the Center for Investigative Reporting. Aallyah has a bachelor’s in journalism with minors in communications and theater from Delta State University. She is a 2018 Educating Children in Mississippi Fellow at the Hechinger Report, and co-founder of the Mississippi Delta Public Newsroom.