Current, former Jasper County sheriffs will face off in 3rd straight election rematch
For the third election season in a row, Jasper County Sheriff Donald Hipp and former sheriff Chris Malphrus will face off this November for the county’s top law enforcement position.
With 55.78% of the vote in the June 11 primary, Malphrus beat out Lt. Chris Warren of the Ridgeland Police Department, who received 44.22%. Malphrus received 325 more votes than Warren.
Unofficial results from scvotes.org say Jasper County counted 2,811 ballots for the sheriff’s race, 674 of which came from early or absentee voting. For the primary as a whole, 4,392 ballots were cast out of 22,586 registered voters in the county, leading to a turnout of 19.45%.
The contest for sheriff in the Nov. 5 general election will continue a yearslong back-and-forth between Malphrus and Hipp. Malphrus beat Hipp 45% to 33% in the 2016 race but was unseated in 2020, when Hipp secured 56.35% of the vote.
In campaign materials, Malphrus has claimed his tenure as sheriff brought about increased arrests and lower rates of violent crime. If elected, the candidate said he would form an “aggressive” drug enforcement team and increase patrols to build community trust in policing.
Both candidates spent decades in local law enforcement before stepping up to lead Jasper County’s police force. Malphrus worked as an officer at the Jasper County jail before joining the Ridgeland Police Department, where he served as a K-9 officer supervisor and a corporal of patrol. Hipp spent 25 years at the sheriff’s office as a lieutenant, patrol supervisor, detention officer and major before becoming an investigator with the 14th Circuit Solicitor’s Office in 2017.
