Rheunte E. Benson

2026 Candidacy

• Democratic candidate for Shelby County Criminal Court Clerk in the May 5, 2026 primary. (SCEC Final Candidate List, May 5 2026)

Current role

• General Sessions Criminal Administrator, Shelby County clerk's office. (Commercial Appeal via Yahoo)
• Listed in the National Association for Court Management The Court Manager new-members directory (Vol. 34, No. 3, Fall 2019) as "Administrator of General Sessions Criminal Court, Memphis, Tennessee." (NACM)

Career

• Per her own campaign statements, 30 years of experience in the General Sessions Court Clerk's Office / court operations and leadership. (Commercial Appeal via Yahoo, Q&A)

Prior candidacies

• 2020 Democratic primary, Shelby County General Sessions Court Clerk — lost to incumbent Joe Brown. (Commercial Appeal via Yahoo, Memphis Flyer)
• 2024 Democratic primary, Shelby County General Sessions Court Clerk — lost to Tami Sawyer in a multi-candidate field that included incumbent Joe Brown and Shelandra Ford. (Ballotpedia, Tri-State Defender)
• Prior campaigns used electbensonforclerk.com and the Facebook page facebook.com/BensonforClerk2020. The campaign site was not reachable during this research.

Stated priorities

From her 2024 campaign, which focused on a closely related office:

• Improving customer service and community access.
• Upgrading technology, including e-filing. In 2024 she noted: "Shelby County (general sessions) is one of the largest court systems and we have yet to get into e-filing." (Commercial Appeal via Yahoo)
• Completing a case-management system for the criminal division and advancing a new system for the civil division. (Q&A)

Compiled from publicly available web sources on 2026-04-18. The 2026 race (Criminal Court Clerk) is a distinct office from her 2020 and 2024 runs (General Sessions Court Clerk). Education and family background were not located in online sources.

Statement of interest (Tennessee Ethics Commission)

• 2026 — Criminal Court Clerk (SS-8005) — filed as a Shelby County official/candidate
• 2024 — General Sessions Court Clerk (SS-8005) — filed as a Shelby County official/candidate
• 2024 — General Sessions Court Clerk (SS-8005 (Amended)) — filed as a Shelby County official/candidate

Source: Tennessee Ethics Commission Statement of Interest Search. Scraped 2026-04-25.