Incumbents Robbins, Thomas get Republican Party nominations for Whitfield County Board of Commissioners

Published 9:55 pm Tuesday, May 24, 2022

Republican Party voters approved two incumbents as the GOP’s nominees for seats on the Whitfield County Board of Commissioners on Tuesday. They will each be on the ballot in the Nov. 8 general election. No Democrat qualified for either of the seats.

Incumbent Barry Robbins defeated Darrell Long by 1,288 votes (75%) to 423 votes (25%) in the primary for the District 1 seat on the board.

Incumbent John Thomas defeated Shane Day by 1,825 votes (54%) to 1,539 votes (46%) in the race for the GOP nomination for the District 3 seat on the board.

Robbins was collecting his campaign signs Tuesday night when informed of the results.

“I want to thank the people that voted for me and the people who supported me during the campaign,” he said. “I am honored that they showed this trust in me. I’m looking forward to serving my next term on the commission. Since it is my third term, I will be term limited out when it is over. But I promise to keep working to move Whitfield County forward.”

A veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps, Robbins grew up in Canton and has a bachelor of business administration in finance from the University of North Florida in Jacksonville. He has been in the banking industry for more than 30 years.

Thomas said he was “humbled and honored that the voters of District 3 decided they wanted to put up with me for the next four years.”

“I want to thank Mr. Day for throwing his hat into the ring,” he said. “He is a good man who ran an honorable campaign. I’ve enjoyed serving the people of District 3 and Whitfield County. I feel like I’ve got my feet wet and now I’m really eager to get to work. We’ve started expanding sewer into the county and I want to keep on working on that. We are going to take a good look at our subdivision regulations and see if there’s any way to improve them.”

Thomas defeated Day in an April 2021 special election runoff to fill the unexpired term of the late Roger Crossen for the District 3 seat on the board. Thomas defeated Day in that runoff by 587 votes (52.98%) to 521 votes (47.02%). If Thomas is elected in November he will win his first full four-year term on the board.

A Whitfield County native, Thomas served on the Whitfield County Board of Education from 2007 to 2010 and served on the Dalton-Whitfield County Planning Commission for two years. Planning commission members are appointed by the Whitfield County Board of Commissioners and the Dalton City Council and hold hearings on and make recommendations on zoning requests.

The deadline for someone seeking to run as a write-in candidate to file and publish a notice of intent is Sept. 6, and Sept. 11 is the deadline to file an affidavit.