Candidates that plan to run in the 2020 General Election must qualify for the office no later than November 8, 2019, including candidates for all six seats on the Pike County Commission.

Although they have not yet qualified, all six incumbent commissioners said that they plan to run for reelection.

Charlie Harris, District 5, is the longest-serving commissioner and will be seeking his seventh term on the governing body.

“I think I’ve served the people as they wish, doing what they want me to do,” Harris said. “And I’m honest with all of my constituents in the county and I’m proud to serve as long as I have; I hope they continue letting me serve.”

Chairman Robin Sullivan, District 2, said he wants to continue the projects the county is currently working on.

“This would be my fifth term if elected; it would be 20 years,” Sullivan said. “It’s been a great learning experience that I’ve really enjoyed being in the community and trying to make a positive difference. We’ve started some projects we really need to see come to fruition and I intend to keep going.”

Jimmy Barron, District 3, and Homer Wright, District 1, would also be entering ther fifth terms if reelected.

“I just want to continue to serve the people of Pike County,” Barron said. “The commission is all working good together and I want to continue to serve.”

Wright did not elaborate, but confirmed he would seek reelection.

Chad Copeland, District 4, will seek to be reelected for the first time after winning the seat in the 2016 General Election.

“When I decided to run last time, I wrote a letter to the people of District 4 about the things I wanted to accomplish,” Copeland said. “One of the things I’m proudest of is that we’ve been able to accomplish many of those things or are in the process of trying to complete those things. One of those things was to better communicate with the public, which we’re still working on but doing better with our website and social media presence. Economic development was another big one and we’ve had a great run of luck with Rex Lumber, our involvement with Kimber, and one yet to be named. And then fiscal responsibility, getting our budgets turned around and riding a wave of economic success; we want to keep that going.”

Copeland said he was also proud of the commission for tackling the construction of a ne Pike County Jail and finding ways to pave local roads even before Alabama passed a new gas tax for that purpose.

Copeland was joined in 2016 by new commissioner Russell Johnson, District 6.

“We’ve done so much in the past three years and we’re just fixing to finally be able to reap the benefits of some of that stuff,” Johnson said. “We’re fixing to take off full-steam with infrastructure and what’s fixing to happen in the next few years; I’d like to see that through to fruition.”

Candidates for the General Election can already begin raising money, but a search on the Secretary of State website showed that no campaign finance reports have yet been filed by any commission candidates.

No other candidates have publicly announced campaigns for any of the commission seats.

The General Election will be held Tuesday, November 3, 2020.