BY KADIE TAYLOR
THE OBSERVER
LEE COUNTY — The Lee County NAACP Branch 5038 held a Candidate Forum for the 2026 Statewide Primary Election on May 19 on Thursday, May 7, at the Greater Peace Missionary Baptist Church Family Life Center.
President of NAACP Branch 5038 Laticia Smith, welcomed the candidates and shared the importance of local education on candidates and making informed decisions when voting.
“I want to especially say thank you to all of our candidates who are here,” Smith said. “There are seven positions on the ballot that represent 12 candidates, and I am happy to say that we received positive responses from eight candidates, which are representative of four of the seven positions. So I just want to personally say thank you for your enthusiasm and your willingness to come out and participate in our NAACP event.
“We’re here today because our mission is simply to educate the public. We want to make sure that our constituents and our community are well aware of who is running for office and what their positions are, so that we can make sure that we make informed and educated decisions when we go out to vote.”
Moderator Parker Hamilton gave each candidate a minute and a half to introduce themselves and share why they are running for their respective positions, and Tameka Lockhart recorded time to ensure fairness for each candidate.
Lee County Sheriff
JAY JONES
“I have the honor of serving currently as Lee County Sheriff,” he said. “I grew up in Montgomery, Alabama. My dad was a World War II veteran. My mom put rivets in B-24 Liberator Bombers for the war effort. They taught me values that I use today, and I followed them all my life; being fair, being honest, being transparent and offering people a chance to find out exactly what they need to know whenever they have a question for me. I’ve spent many years in law enforcement. I’m an Auburn graduate. I graduated from Troy State, Troy University now, with a master’s degree in administration, which gives me the skills and the experience to administrate and manage a $24 million budget and a 245-plus member agency with men and women who are dedicated to serving in the public interest as service for public safety. I think that is the most critical thing, so you can be safe in your homes, safe in your community and make this a great place to live and work. I brought the sheriff’s office from years ago to where it is now, with changes, improvements and keeping up with technologies. We’re consistently doing that, and we’re doing it now. And my plan, if elected, is to continue to do just that, to put the best resources, the best people in places to best serve you, enhance, improve and continue to provide for the public safety of the citizens of Lee County.”
CAMERON HUNT
“I’m running for sheriff here in Lee County,” he said. “I’m a husband, father of three and I was born and raised here in Lee County. I spent most of my childhood in Opelika. After that, I moved to Auburn. I’m a graduate of Auburn University, and I spent my adult life in service, first to our country, as an active duty field artillery officer in the United States Marine Corps, and then to our community as a law enforcement officer. First with the Opelika Police Department, and then with the Lee County Sheriff’s Office. I’m running because I’ve seen firsthand from the inside how the system is broken and how it can do better, that’s why my campaign is based on three simple principles: justice, liberty and accountability. Justice means that the laws apply fairly and consistently across the board. It doesn’t matter who you are, who you know or what position you hold. Liberty means that your rights are protected and never treated as optional. Law enforcement exists to safeguard people’s rights. Respect of private property, due process and the constitutional rights of every citizen is not only essential to maintain public trust, it’s the fundamental duty of the sheriff. Accountability and transparency are what’s essential for professionalism. Leadership needs to be willing to answer for its decisions, to hold deputies accountable for their actions, same as anyone else, without double standards or favoritism. Transparency. You, the taxpayers, deserve transparency on how your tax dollars are being utilized and how the sheriff’s office is actually operating. These three principles are more than just words; they are the foundation [to make sure] that the office is fair, professional and worthy of the trust that you place in it.”
Lee County Coroner
DANIEL SEXTON
“I am your current Lee County Coroner,” he said. “I was elected coroner in 2022 after the untimely death of our long-term coroner, Mr. Bill Harris. We have made tremendous improvements and changes at the coroner’s office. Having served in administrative roles, whether it’s from the businesses that I own or from the places that I’ve worked, I’ve always served in leadership roles, and we have made tremendous strides and improvements. There’s a lot that goes into the coroner’s office that people don’t really know, that we do all day, every day. I would be happy to discuss it more with anyone individually afterwards, and I’m just looking forward to serving again. I would appreciate your support. If there’s something that I can personally do to help you, please let me know. I’m certain that I’ve served some of the families here. In the last four years, we’ve served over 2,000 families in this county, and if you check with any of the families who serve, I think you will be very pleased with the work that we do.”
BRIAN ALLEN
“I’m a third-generation businessman and a life-long resident of Lee County, Alabama,” he said. “Lee County is my home. I love the people in this county. I love this county. My goal is to run for coroner and to add proactive programs to the coroner’s office for better community service. On May 19, we have the option to choose from that. With your support, I will have outreach programs in place, and we can better further community service.”
Lee County Commission for District 5
RICHARD LAGRAND SR.
“I’m your current Lee County Commissioner for District 5, and I’m proud to be your Commissioner for District 5,” he said. “Today is such a special day, folks, [it’s] National Day of Prayer. There’s so much to pray for. A year ago, I wasn’t able to be here because I was in the hospital. But today, I’m here to let you know I’m running for reelection for District 5. I’ve been the voice of this community for over 40 years, the voice that you hear. You can see my results, go right up the street, the Curtis House is a place that I help run [and] Girl Scouts. There’s other things that I’ve done in this community when I touch base with the community. The community knows that I’m out in the community, and I’m not hard to find. I’m on the radio every morning. We’ve got a beautiful building on Society Hill road that I’m there on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. I encourage you to come back. Last, but not least, I want to say ‘Thank you, thank you, thank you, from the bottom of the heart. I’m the most qualified candidate vote to bring back the radio man, yours truly, Richard LaGrand.’”
DERRIC A. BAKER
“I believe in being a resource for our community, and being a resource, we also have to connect with the community, and I think that I would be a great person that connect our community to the right resources that are available,” he said. “I have all my family here, my parents are here. My father was a fireman, retired from the Opelika Fire Department. My mom was a nurse practitioner. We’re a community family, we believe in helping people, and I think that I am highly qualified, based on the fact that I ran parts of the Opelika Housing Authority. I’ve also been in business with T-Mobile as a manager for them, and right now I’m a probation officer with the city of Opelika. Community is something I love to do. As I walked and worked around this community, I saw some needs that people needed to be able to be connected with the resources that are here, and that we needed transparency. I hope to bring that transparency to Lee County and help us to move forward.”
Lee County Commission for District 4
TONY LANGLEY
“I’m the current District 4 Commissioner, and I’m running for reelection,” he said. “I have enjoyed serving the people of Lee County, and a little bit of background about me is my family was in public service. My father was a fireman for 30 years, and my mother was a bus driver for 30 years. So, in that capacity, they’ve always been in public service, and that instilled in me that I wanted to work for public office. I really couldn’t be the fireman, being in the same shift with my dad, that part didn’t work out. So I wanted to get into public service the best way I could, and getting into the county commission was one way to do that and to serve all of Lee County, not just District 4. [There are] five commissioners on the board, but we have to work together. So as commissioners, we work to help each other out. And the main reason for [my] running again is that there’s issues going on in the county. I felt like we needed to better improve, that’s why I ran. That’s why I am running for reelection, and come May 19, I humbly ask you to vote again.”
HAROLD WHATLEY
“First and foremost, I want to tell all the ladies out there happy early Mother’s Day, because y’all are so important right now,” he said. “So I was going to make sure I’ll tell you all Happy Mother’s Day. I’ve been here in Lee County for 26 years. I come from Elmore County, where I was raised at a small business. All my life, ever since I was a little kid, I ran around a print shop, so I learned at an early age how to do business and do it effectively. My dad’s been in business for a very long time, and he instilled in me a lot of business knowledge. Along the way, when I moved here 26 years ago, I thought I was the only Whatley here in town, but lo and behold, I moved here, and a whole lot of Whatleys are here. I met my lovely wife in Beauregard, and we have five kids. We have just announced our sixth grandchild. So that’s a little bit about me and my family, but I’m here to tell you, I’m wanting to run for Lee County Commissioner, because I want to help the people. I want to give the citizens their voice back. Along the way, I feel like the citizens have lost their voice. I want y’all to stand up and hold the commissioners accountable for what they’re doing and what they’re not doing. That’s the main reason why I’m running. I want to work alongside the people and make sure we have a good grasp of how we’re spending our taxpayers’ money.”
Following introductions, Hamilton asked candidates a variety of additional questions on their plans if elected and how they plan to serve their constituents. All the candidates were respectful of their allotted time and expressed their excitement for representing the voices of Lee County and serving their community.
After questions and answers concluded, candidates returned to their tables for those in attendance to ask any additional questions they had and to share more about their respective campaigns. Smith said she was happy to see the candidates attend to educate and inform community members.
“Going into this knowing that this was a very highly Republican race, we really were concerned,” she said. “We were not sure how it was going to be perceived. We do realize that a lot of people will associate the NAACP with only being Democrat affiliated. So I was pleasantly surprised that when I reached out to all the candidates, told them what we were trying to do and explained that at the end of the day, we are all about voter engagement, voter empowerment, wanting to make sure that people got out the vote and, more importantly, [we want to know] that people were informed, empowered and knew what the issues were. I was just pleasantly surprised and excited when we were able to get the responses that we did. So it was very important to us because it did to inform and educate voters. I think it allowed everyone to see that at the end of the day, we all just want the best candidate to serve us and to represent our needs.”
To learn about future events, follow the Lee County, AL NAACP Branch 5038 on Facebook.
