former Democrat supporter seeks GOP nomination for sheriff

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former Democrat supporter seeks GOP nomination for sheriff

Published: Friday, March 14th, 2025 @ 9:54 am
By: John Steed ( More Entries )

Beaufort County Republicans seem to be set for another primary for the office of sheriff in 2026. Incumbent conservative sheriff Scott Hammonds is expected to seek reelection to a second term. An ally of the man he beat, former Sheriff Ernie Coleman, former Beaufort County deputy sheriff Kelly Cox is already putting up campaign signs around the county for a challenge. This race is essentially Coleman versus Hammonds 2.0

For GOP loyalists, there is another big concern and that is the political opportunism of Cox. In 2022, after Coleman was defeated in the primary, Cox, who was a member of the Beaufort County Republican executive committee at the time, began actively campaigning for the Democrat sheriff nominee in the general election. He flagramtly ignored party loyalty rules for Republican officials that prohibited campaigning for Democrats. As a result, he was forced to resign from the county Republican executive committee for party disloyalty.

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Comments

borderhawk said:

( March 16th, 2025 @ 11:57 am )

Sheriff Hammonds is a strong supporter of cooperation with ICE against illegal alien criminals. We need to keep him.

Conservative Voter said:

( March 15th, 2025 @ 7:51 am )

I agree that Hammonds has been a good sheriff, and Coleman wasn't. We do not need a rerun of the Coleman era. I know some of the Coleman crowd have sour grapes over his loss, but that should not be the basis for another primary.

As an individual, a person has an absolute right to support anyone they want to. However when one is entrusted with a position of leadership in a party organization, if they want to go against that party in a race, they have an ethical obligation to resign from that party post. It is the lack of ethics by Cox in continuing in that position under those circumstances that is very troubling. Our sheriff should be of the highest ethical standards and Cox does not reflect that.

John Heermann said:

( March 14th, 2025 @ 3:41 pm )

Cox is not the most qualified candidate for Sheriff. In addition to his questionable ethics concerning party disloyalty, he abused his authority while serving as a member of the Beaufort County Sheriff Department when he was employed there. It is easy to see that he is only seeking office for personal gain or other personal reasons. He is not a person of the high moral fiber or character that we expect, not only of our elected officials, but also of the law enforcement officers we count on to keep us safe. That is NOT the type of leadership we need in law enforcement in our county! I would not recommend or endorse him for Sheriff.

David Winstead said:

( March 14th, 2025 @ 11:31 am )

As an Independent, I personally do not care if you are a Democrat or Republican or who you support, Scott Hammonds has been a great sheriff and I will continue to support him! #TEAMHAMMONDS

Also, as Bubba said: "Ernie Coleman was one of the worst sheriffs", if not, the worst in my lifetime that is!

Bubba said:

( March 14th, 2025 @ 11:05 am )

Ernie Coleman was one of the worst sheriffs our county ever had. Why would we want one of his cronies as our sheriff?

Rino Hunter said:

( March 14th, 2025 @ 11:21 am )

There is a very good reason why someone supporting a Democrat should not be sitting in a Republican Executive Committee meeting. He would have access to senstive informatoin to pass on to the Democrat.Anyone with personal integriy would immediate resign from such an obvious conflict of interest whether the rules allowed it or not. Our sheriff should be someone of unquationable personal integrity and someone who willingly engaged in this conflict of interest just does not qualify. The fact that he did not immediately resign on his own when he started to support the Democrat, but waited to be confronted after that was discovered speaks volumes.

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