As students arrive back on campus and we get a new group of freshmen as well, a change in local leadership is leading many locals and young people to see our county with new hope. Voices were heard, the party letters were ignored, and policy won over the establishment as Weakley County elected Dale Hutcherson as our County Mayor.
During the lead-up to the election, Hutcherson originally planned to run as a Republican but was met with opposition from the Weakley County GOP. Commissioner John Robert Freeman was named the Republican candidate after a clause in the party bylaws said that only “bona fide” party members could run in a caucus.
Hutcherson is not a bona fide member as he missed a primary while he was in law school. This made him one short of the voting in three out of the last four primaries as a Republican to be considered bona fide. This caused a major division within the dominant party of Weakley County. Many people were upset that this bylaw was not made clear to candidates before.
Moving on to the campaigns, Hutcherson was a very prominent candidate on social media and in person. His stance on being a servant leader, a chief marketer, a resource and an advocate for Weakley County seemed to hit deep within the hearts of those who live here and love it just as much. The videos posted on his social media page told the voters what his policies were and where he stood on certain issues facing our community. His heartfelt policies and tearful remarks about his love for the county that raised him sealed his fate as the new mayor.
One cannot ignore the influence of social media as well, with meme accounts like the Unofficial City of Martin giving him the nickname “Sugar Baby” Hutcherson. While some would take offense to the joking name, Hutcherson seemed to embrace it by liking the posts and even thanking them on a congratulatory post they made about his swearing-in.
Hutcherson won the election that was held on Aug. 1 with 2,982 votes compared to Freeman’s 1,593 votes and Danny Powers’ 231 votes. On Aug. 19, 2024, Hutcherson was sworn into the office of Weakley County Mayor which was vacated after Jake Bynum left in March of this year.
Hutcherson has already gotten a leg up on starting his duties as County Mayor. After he was elected, he started having meetings with County Commissioners, the interim County Mayor, Dennis Doster, spoke with former County Mayor Jake Bynum and UT Martin Chancellor Yancy Freeman. He also spoke with many different department heads within the county, choosing his time between being elected to being sworn in as a way to start off strong.
One thing that he also talked a lot about during his campaign is how to use UT Martin as a resource for the county and have the county be a resource for UT Martin. “ I think there’s some really good ideas that he (Chancellor Freeman) brought to the table and things that will certainly be beneficial to our county as a whole. Not just in Martin or not just for the university, but I really do think that some of the ideas he has will expand and transcend throughout the county.”
Mayor Hutcherson also talked about trying to keep students, such as the STEM students who have a track record of getting amazing jobs after graduation, here in Weakley County to help grow the community. He said “It’s a great setup and something that Chancellor Freeman and I talked about was trying to make sure that we set up opportunities to retain students that will come out of UT Martin here in Weakley County. You know, I’d love to make sure that we can provide not only a stable infrastructure for them, but job opportunities here in the county that will make them want to stay and, you know, accelerate their career path and raise their families and all those good things…I used the term during my campaign, homegrown growth. That is certainly, to me, one of the key ways we can achieve that is making sure we’re retaining those students and showing them that we have opportunities right here.”
Hutcherson’s connection to UT Martin is abundant. While he did not come to UT Martin for his undergraduate, both of his parents are alumni while his grandmother was a professor here at UT Martin for 30-plus years. His wife, Samantha “Sam” Hutcherson, works as the Associate Director of Corporate Relations for the Office of Development within the UT Foundation where she fundraises and engages with corporations across Northwest Tennessee.
As a college student, one thing I have heard from many is that we need more young people in our government. I agree because we need new ideas and outlooks on how to expand our once thriving community. Mayor Hutcherson has those traits. He has a proven track record with his legal practice and his time as a Dresden Alderman. He has already started to be very transparent with events in the community with a new weekly video that gets posted on the official Weakley County Tennessee Facebook page. He is reaching out to the younger audience and is working to show that he will keep his campaign promises because he loves Weakley County and wants to see it grow.
