May 18, 2021 3 min read

Jeff Grimes overwhelmingly won the Republican nomination in the race for Greene County judge, and is on pace to win the Democratic nomination as well.

Grimes easily defeated challenger Kimberly Pratt for the GOP nomination, beating her 79-21% on Election Day votes from Republicans, but he wasn’t ready to declare victory yet in the Democratic race, despite holding a strong lead in that race while there were a number of mail-in ballots that won’t be counted until later today.

Grimes said he was “cautiously optimistic” about winning both nominations, but wanted to wait until all votes were counted before declaring victory.

“Well, I think it’s early, but I feel good,” Grimes said Tuesday night.

While Grimes easily won the Republican nomination, he also held a commanding lead Tuesday night in the Democratic race with 65-35% of the vote, although the winner could not be called because of the number of outstanding mail-in and absentee ballots that needed to be counted.

Grimes was leading 1,747-958 with Election Day votes in the Democratic primary. There were 1,265 mail-in votes returned from Democrats as of Tuesday morning, leaving the primary somewhat up in the air, although it would still be difficult for Pratt, 54, of Carmichaels, to overcome the deficit. Grimes won 2,876 votes to Pratt’s 742 in the Republican primary, but there were only 325 such votes on that side of the ballot, giving him a solid cushion to defeat Pratt on that side of the ballot.

Greene County elections officials expected to begin counting the mail-in ballots today, although it was not know when they would be finished.

While Grimes, 48, of Holbrook, has been a registered Republican his entire adult life, he enjoyed strong support in the Democratic primary, despite the results not being finalized. Grimes credited that support to county voters understanding that a judge is supposed to be impartial and not held to partisan roles.

“I’ve had a lot of great Democratic support,” Grimes said. “A lot of people don’t view the judiciary as political, which is a good thing.”

The position became available when Farley Toothman abruptly resigned as Greene County judge in January after being accused of judicial misconduct.

Grimes is the son of former judge H. Terry Grimes, who retired in 2009 after 23 years on the bench in Greene County. He has ran for judge once before, losing in a tight race against current President Judge Lou Dayich in 2015.

But Grimes wasn’t ready to hold a celebration Tuesday night until all of the mail-in votes were counted.

“I’m going to wait. I feel good,” he said. “I’m cautiously optimistic with the results so far.”