TYLER, Texas — Incumbent Smith County Pct. 3 Commissioner Terry Phillips and challenger J. Scott Herod will face each other in runoff election after neither received the majority of the votes.
According to unofficial results, Phillips received 31.92% of the vote, while Herod received 44.25% of the votes. Former Winona Mayor Rusty Smith received 23.83%.
Since none of the candidates earned a majority of the vote, the top two finishers, Phillips and Herod, will be in a runoff election in May. The runoff elections are scheduled for May 28.
Whoever comes out with the most votes will face Democratic challenger Edith Wilson in November.
Precinct 3 covers the entire northern half of Smith County, which includes cities Lindale, Winona, a portion of Overton and Tyler and Hideaway. It is the largest of the four Smith County commissioner precincts.
Phillips has served as Pct. 3 commissioner since January 2009. Prior to becoming commissioner, he worked well test analyst at Otis Engineering and later Getty Oil Company, which was purchased by Texaco. He continued at Texaco and began acquiring real estate. He continues managing properties presently, according to the Smith County website.
Herod has co-owned Cut Beef, a local business that sells naturally pasture-raised beef in East Texas, since 2014. He previously worked in outside sales for Guardsmark, Inc., an international security firm. He then moved on to Bank of America, where he went from banking center manager to consumer market executive to senior vice president.
He left Bank of America in 2012 to become a co-owner of APEC (Athlete Performance Enhancement Center) in Tyler. He later sold his stake in 2014 to open and operate Cut Beef.