Lowery and Buckner Won. They Inherit a County That Borrowed $125 Million for Payroll, Has a Budget Due August 31, and Has Not Approved the Schools Appropriation.

MEMPHIS, Tenn. - Shelby County Commissioner Mickell Lowery declared victory in the race for county mayor on the evening of August 6, leading Republican John DeBerry Jr. with more than 65 percent of the vote as returns were still coming in.

Chief Deputy Anthony Buckner was elected sheriff the same night, defeating Republican Brad Less.

Returns are unofficial until the Shelby County Election Commission certifies them.

Both men succeed officials who are term limited. Mayor Lee Harris and Sheriff Floyd Bonner leave office September 1, 26 days from the election.

Lowery has represented District 8 on the County Commission since 2018 and is the son of the late Memphis City Councilman Myron Lowery. Buckner joined the Sheriff's Office in 2001 and was promoted to chief deputy by Bonner in 2023.

What lands on the desk September 1

Four documented items arrive with the office, and none of them waits.

The borrowing. Commissioners approved up to $125 million on July 27, primarily to meet payroll for roughly 4,600 county employees. It is the second operating borrowing in under a year, after a $43 million internal loan in November 2025. Because the county's fiscal 2026 budget was never approved by the state, the county needed an emergency waiver from the Tennessee Comptroller's Division of Local Government Finance to issue the debt.

Lowery voted on that borrowing as a sitting commissioner. He will now administer it. That is a fact about the sequence, not an allegation about anything.

The budget deadline. The county's fiscal 2027 budget is due to the Comptroller by August 31, one day before the new administration takes office. Two consecutive unapproved budgets would change the county's borrowing position materially.

The schools appropriation. The Commission has not approved the Memphis-Shelby County Schools budget. Classes began August 3. The amended plan, closer to $1.8 billion, was scheduled to reach commissioners August 10.

The jail. The county has spent $58 million on emergency repairs at 201 Poplar. The chiller failed in June, sending temperatures to 92 degrees and 14 people in custody for medical attention. Commissioner Mick Wright asked Mayor Harris on June 30 to issue a request for qualifications for a full structural and mechanical assessment. No public record of that RFQ has been identified.

Buckner named the jail first

Buckner said his immediate focus is the jail, and named three specific approaches: reducing the population by moving state inmates into state facilities, adding mental health services, and working with prosecutors and judges to move cases faster.

That is a more concrete opening position than most incoming sheriffs state, and each part is measurable.

It also arrives into an unusually crowded record. A criminal trial is underway now against two former corrections deputies charged in the 2022 death of Gershun Freeman at 201 Poplar; both have pleaded not guilty and are presumed innocent. A family filed suit on July 28 over a separate death in custody, alleging eight days in jail on two misdemeanor charges without seeing a judge. The criminal justice reform group Just City counts 68 in-custody deaths at the jail since 2018. A 2025 needs assessment found the plumbing, electrical, HVAC and security systems all past useful life.

Population reduction is the lever Buckner controls most directly, and it is the one that touches conditions fastest. The building itself is the county mayor's problem, not the sheriff's, which is why the assessment question belongs to Lowery.

The seat Lowery leaves

Lowery holds County Commission District 8. The race to succeed him was on the same ballot, with Republican E.J. Murphy, Democrat Will Richardson and independent Keeley Greer running for it.

That is a cleaner transition than the one facing the Memphis City Council, where Councilwoman Jerri Green won the Democratic nomination for governor on the same night and still holds her seat.

Accountability Watch

Who is accountable: Mayor-elect Mickell Lowery and Sheriff-elect Anthony Buckner, from September 1. Outgoing Mayor Lee Harris and Sheriff Floyd Bonner until then. The Shelby County Board of Commissioners, which approved the borrowing and must act on the schools budget.

What is pending: The request for qualifications for a 201 Poplar assessment, requested June 30, 2026 and not issued. The county's fiscal 2027 budget filing. Commission action on the MSCS appropriation.

Timeline: Borrowing of up to $125 million approved July 27, 2026. MSCS classes began August 3. Election August 6. Commission scheduled to take up the MSCS budget August 10. County fiscal 2027 budget due to the Comptroller August 31. Lowery and Buckner take office September 1.

Status as of August 7, 2026: Results unofficial and not certified. No RFQ identified. No fiscal 2027 budget filing confirmed.

How to verify: The Shelby County Election Commission publishes unofficial returns and later certifies them at electionsshelbytn.gov. The borrowing resolution and its recorded vote are available from the Commission's Minutes Department and state the amount, term and security. The Tennessee Comptroller's Division of Local Government Finance can confirm the status of both the fiscal 2026 and fiscal 2027 county budget filings.

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