ATHENS COUNTY, Ohio — New and incumbent candidates filed petitions with the Athens County Board of Elections on Wednesday to run for election in the May 6 primary. Additionally, two cities, three townships and one school district are seeking ballot issues.
The primary election will be held Tuesday, May 6. Winners of the primaries will go on to the general election on Tuesday, Nov. 4. Following the primary races, only independent, non-party affiliated candidates may run for office in the general election.
The Athens County Board of Elections will certify candidate petitions for the May primary at its meeting on Feb. 14 at 3:30 p.m. April 7 is the deadline to register to vote in the primary.
Athens City Council and treasurer
Athens City Council will see from fresh faces in 2026, with three longtime members exiting the body this year. Athens City Council consists of a president, four ward reps and three at-large reps. Council members are elected to two-year terms in odd-numbered years.
Sitting council President Sam Crowl and council members Solveig Spjeldnes, 1st Ward, and Jeff Risner, 2nd Ward, will not run again.
According to the Athens County Board of Elections, current At-Large council member Micah McCarey will seek to replace Crowl in the president’s seat.
Three people, all Democrats, will vie to replace Spjeldnes: Anthony D. Jacobs, Megan Leah Almeida and Andrew Guidarelli.
Only one candidate filed for the 2nd Ward seat Risner is vacating — John Adams Staser, a Democrat.
Incumbent council members Michael Wood, 3rd Ward, and Alan Swank, 4th Ward, both Democrats, will run unopposed. Incumbent At-Large council members Beth Clodfelter and Jessica Thomas are also seeking reelection, but face competition from Iva (Ari) Faber and Paul Isherwood, both Democrats.
Faber unsuccessfully ran to represent Athens County in the Ohio Senate last year.
Incumbent Democratic Athens City Treasurer Josh Thomas also filed unopposed.
Nelsonville City Council and government offices
Currently, Nelsonville City Council consists of seven at-large, non-party affiliated council members. But not for long: For the first time in decades, Nelsonville city government positions will be filled through partisan races for mayor, council president and law director, plus new council members.
As Nelsonville enters a new era — one under a mayoral government — familiar faces have filed candidate petitions. Current At-Large council member Johnny Flowers, a Republican, filed to run for mayor of Nelsonville. Former council member Dan Sherman, a Republican, filed for the president of council, also filing unopposed. Sherman last served on the body in 2023.
Andrea Nicole Thompson-Hashman, a Republican, has filed to replace outgoing Nelsonville City Auditor Taylor Sappington, who will become Athens County Treasurer in September.
Thompson-Hashman is the daughter of former council member Greg Smith and a former city clerk. In 2020, she sued the administrators of the Nelsonville Crackheads Facebook page for libel. Athens County Court of Common Pleas Judge George McCarthy ruled in favor of the administrators on grounds that their posts were protected free speech.
Jessica Hollenbaugh, a Republican, filed to run for an at-large council seat. No one filed for the law director or treasurer races, and no Democrats filed for election.
Ballot issues
Six ballot issues were filed for the May primary. One is statewide: the Ohio Local Public Infrastructure Bond Amendment, a constitutional amendment that would authorize $2.5 billion in local infrastructure bonds.
The city of Athens will ask voters to increase the income tax from 1.95% to 2.54%, a 15.4% hike.
In Nelsonville, voters will decide whether to amend the city charter to adopt a mayoral form of government.
Last November, a wide majority of Nelsonville voters decided to abolish the charter in favor of a return to statutory government. If the voters approve the proposed amendment this May, the city would preserve its charter, but transition to a new form of government.
Two townships filed property tax levies. Bern Township will ask residents to approve an additional 1-mill levy for fire protection levy for five years and to renew a cemetery maintenance levy at a rate of 1 mill for five years.
Troy Township, excluding the village of Coolville, filed for a replacement levy for road maintenance, at a rate of 1.5 mills for the five years.
The only school issue will be for the Warren Local School District, in the eastern part of Athens County. The district seeks to renew a levy for “emergency requirements of the school district” at a rate of 4.17 mills for the next 10 years.
This story was updated at 12:15 p.m. Feb. 8 to correct an error: Taylor Sappington will become county treasurer, not county auditor.
