Randy Allen, COO of the Rutherford County Area Habitat for Humanity, defeated incumbent Mayor Joe Carr in Tuesday night’s Republican primary election for Rutherford County Mayor, according to unofficial results.
With all 30 voting centers reporting, Allen secured 6,844 votes, or 36.16 percent of the total. Carr followed closely with 6,459 votes (34.13 percent), while Craig Harris received 5,584 votes (29.50 percent). Write-in candidates accounted for a small fraction (0.21 percent) of the vote.
On the Democratic side, no candidate qualified for the ballot, leaving only write-in votes recorded, totaling 416.
With no Democratic challenger officially in the race, Allen is now positioned as the frontrunner heading into the August 6 general election.
On his campaign website, Allen says he is running on what he describes as “common sense solutions” to the county’s rapid growth and infrastructure challenges. Among the issues Allen’s platform focuses on are lowering tax pressure on homeowners, addressing traffic congestion, and closing the long-debated Middle Point landfill.
Allen also touts on his website his straightforward answer of “no” during a mayoral debate earlier this year, when he was asked whether there would be a property tax increase at any time over the next four years if he were to become mayor.
Carr’s defeat in the race comes as he faced ethics complaints in late 2025, though he was later cleared by District Attorney General Jennings H. Jones, who found no probable cause to believe Carr committed any criminal offense.
The allegations had accused the mayor of misusing county resources and attempting to influence proceedings involving the county property assessor. Carr, who was first elected county mayor in 2022, denied the claims and described them as “baseless and politically motivated.”
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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Kaitlin on X.
Photo “Randy Allen” by Randy Allen.
