Filing continues for March primary elections

By Emily Banks Wooten
[email protected]

Filing continues for county, district and statewide offices for the 2024 Texas Primary Elections and will conclude at 6 p.m. Dec. 11. Filing began on Nov. 11.

For primary elections, candidates file their applications with their state party chairs or, in the event that a district is wholly contained within a single county, their county party chairs. The state and county chairs, in turn, upload approved candidates into the Texas Secretary of State’s portal. Early voting for the March 5, 2024 Primary Elections begins on Feb. 20.

Polk County Publishing Company has a policy to run a free announcement with photo in the newspaper for every candidate who runs for a political office in the county, or as a representative of the county, allowing the candidates to have the opportunity to introduce themselves and their vision to readers.

The photo should be a large .jpg and the announcement should be typed in a Word document not to exceed 400 words. Both should be emailed to the editor or can be brought into the office on a flash drive.

In addition, a candidate may choose to pay a one-time charge to be added to the official Political Calendar. This advertisement runs every week in the newspaper through the election and includes the candidate name/position/party affiliation. The cost is the same if you sign up early or late for the calendar. The pricing is as follows: $100 for precinct offices, $150 for county offices, $200 for state offices and $250 for national offices.

According to PCPC Publisher Kelli Barnes, all political advertising must be paid for by 5 p.m. Monday of the week you want your advertisement to run in the newspaper. Late advertisements can only be accepted as space allows due to press concerns. Advertising position requests can accompany advertisements. We do not charge more for location requests and we cannot guarantee location without advance notice of two weeks. We no longer accept political ads for our Facebook page. Ask to speak to an advertising representative at your newspaper to discuss paid advertising.

“We look forward to helping all candidates in their campaign efforts,” Barnes said.

Local races that will be on the March primary ballot include: sheriff, tax assessor-collector, Precinct 1 commissioner, Precinct 3 commissioner, all four constables and the 411th district judge.