A new candidate is on the ballot for Jasper County sheriff. You may recognize him
The race for Jasper County sheriff has been been anything but predictable, and now it’s taken another turn.
Chief Deputy Gary Morris has officially been added to November’s general election ballot.
Morris, who has been second in command to Sheriff Chris Malphrus since May 2017, announced his hopes of being added to the ballot about a month ago, as first reported by The Island Packet.
The move came less than two weeks after challenger Donald Hipp defeated Malphrus in the June 9 Democratic primary.
Hipp, a 14th Circuit Solicitor’s Office investigator and former Sheriff’s Office deputy, won the election by 695 votes, 56% of the ballots cast.
That primary held Malphrus to a single term and appeared to pave an easy path for Hipp to be the county’s next sheriff because no Republican candidates had filed. Hipp’s name would have been the only one on the ballot in November.
“After Sheriff Malphrus lost the primary, I had enough of the citizens here in Jasper County reach out to me and ask me to do it,” Morris previously told the Packet.
He said he discussed the decision with his family and decided to run.
“I’ve dedicated my life to the citizens of Jasper County for the last 14 years and am not ready to stop serving the citizens,” he said.
As a petition candidate, Morris had to collect signatures from 5% of registered voters in the area he would serve, according to the S.C. Election Commission rules. Since Jasper County has 20,661 registered voters, that means he collected at least 1,033 valid signatures.
Four years ago, Hipp was in the same position.
After Malphrus won the Democratic nomination for sheriff in 2016, Hipp successfully petitioned to get his name on the general election ballot. But Malphrus won that election 45% to 33%, Bluffton Today previously reported.
Collectively, Morris has 34 years in law enforcement, serving in Jasper County and Savannah, Ga.
“I’ve worked under police chiefs and several different sheriffs,” Morris said. “I know where the Jasper County Sheriff’s Office was at prior to Sheriff Malphrus taking office in 2017 and together we have made an impact on the crime in Jasper County and I’d like to see that continued.”
Malphrus endorsed Morris on Facebook early on in the petitioning effort.
“Gary has been my right-hand man and has done a great job,” Malphrus wrote. “... We will continue to work together to make Jasper a better place for all!!!”
Morris said he’s been “dedicated to the community 24 hours a day, seven days a week,” never taking a day off for a sick day or vacation.
“I was not a 9-to-5 chief deputy. I would not be a 9-to-5 sheriff,” he said.
When the Packet interviewed Morris after his announcement last month, he said he was focused on getting signatures to be added to the ballot and had not yet decided who his command staff would include if elected.
He did, however, say he had new ideas he’d implement such as holding regularly scheduled “office hours” for people to meet with him in the evening and possibly on weekends.
