The Knox County clerk has to be a jack of all trades. The office is tasked with a wide variety of responsibilities, far more than the other fee offices in the county.

The Clerk's Office's responsibilites include business and marriage licenses, motor-vehicle registration renewals, County Commission records and more,

The office issues business and marriage licenses; renews driver licenses and motor-vehicle registrations (collecting the wheel tax along the way); collects liquor and wine taxes; serves as a federal passport agent; processes notary public applications; and maintains the minutes and records of County Commission and assorted boards and commissions.

Sherry Witt has served two terms in the office, the maximum allowed under the charter. She’s running for Register of Deeds.

Four Republicans — three former elected officials and one political newcomer — are running to replace her. No Democrat is in the mix, so the GOP primary winner will be unopposed in the general election.

The Republican hopefuls are former Knox County Commissioner Richie Beeler, former Trustee John Duncan III, former Property Assessor John Whitehead and Rodney Lane, who worked in the Clerk’s Office before shifting to the private sector.

Countywide races require relatively large amounts of cash to pay for campaign workers, signs, mailers and other expenses associated with reaching voters across a large geographic area.

Whitehead raised $26,874 during the first quarter of 2026 and loaned his campaign $30,000 to boost his fundraising total to $56,874. 

Beeler, who is currently Witt’s chief of staff in the Clerk’s Office, took in $23,625 in donations. 

Rodney Lane, a former deputy in the Property Assessor’s Office, garnered $6,520. 

John Duncan III, who resigned as trustee in 2013 after being convicted of felony misconduct (his record has since been expunged), reported raising $7,600 from his father and stepmother, while loaning his campaign $20,000. 

Though Whitehead has raised the most money, he’s also spent more than any of the candidates who have reported. Duncan had $23,545 available as of March 31, while Beeler had $19,057 available, Whitehead had $16,903, and Lane had $3,997.

Richie Beeler

Beeler has been a fixture in Knox County government for decades. He worked for nearly 30 years as the finance director in the Register of Deeds Office. He was appointed to the 8th District County Commission seat in 2018 after its then-incumbent, Dave Wright, was elected to the state Legislature, and was elected to the seat in 2020. He did not run for reelection and has been working as a senior staffer under Witt.

“My role is really to almost be the shadow of the clerk, in the sense of having general oversight of the whole office,” Beeler said. “I think if you were to ask what my main area of responsibility has been, it's probably been the satellite offices, more than anything, and also working with our finance director to make sure we’re where we want to be, budget-wise.”

Witt gave him the job of opening a satellite office in West Knox County, one of six in the county.

“Man, that was almost a two-year journey, finding a location, working with the property management people, the realtors, then the landlords, and the contractors,” Beeler said, “and getting the office where we wanted it to be, in terms of its look and its functionality and all of that. She entrusted a ton of that to me.”

The clerk job, in his view, is like that of a CEO — to make sure the offices run smoothly for county residents.

“In a county the size of Knox, when you have 75 or 80 employees and six local employees at six locations, the clerk has got to have a general overview, an understanding of all the different things we do, a working understanding,” he said. 

He said he gained a lot of knowledge by observing Witt during her last term. “That's what I've really gained these last four years … just be the clerk in her absence, and even in her presence.”

Beeler said he’s been attending meetings of clubs and groups across the county during his campaign. People have told him that they’d like self-service kiosks where they can renew registration for vehicles, the most common interaction that people have with the office.

The Clerk’s Office is also the custodian of county records, which Beeler wants to digitize. To do that correctly, he said, he would develop a process to find the right vendors who would work best for the county.

“And that's one thing my background in the (Register of Deeds office) has taught me,” Beeler said, “and that's the importance of records being secure, accurate and accessible.”

Beeler is single, and dedicates his downtime to a ministry he leads through his church.

“I have a brother who lives right next door to me,” he said. “He's got a wife and two boys that are grown. My mom lives with me.”

John J. Duncan III

Duncan said he’s been on a campaign of rebuilding trust with voters. He’s a former Knox County Trustee who paid bonuses to himself and his top deputies while in office more than a decade ago and left office after pleading guilty to a felony misconduct charge.

“I've been completely open and honest about all of it,” he said. “The odd part is, you can't really sum it up that quickly, so it kind of takes, you know, about 10 or 15 minutes to really get into all of the details.”

Duncan resigned as trustee in 2013. An investigation found that he gave $3,000 bonuses to himself and five others, and a $2,000 bonus for a sixth staffer, in 2010. A year later, Duncan awarded similar bonuses to himself and 11 other employees.

Duncan stepped down after pleading guilty to felony official misconduct in July 2013 and was placed on one year of probation, which allowed him to apply for judicial diversion. In 2014, a judge expunged the case after he completed the terms of his diversion.

“I think people who know me personally and have known me know that,” he said, “I think my intentions are pure and in the right place.”

Installing kiosks, automating services and streamlining operations are primary objectives for Duncan, should he get elected. He is interested in open government through allowing easier records searches by the public.

“It's pretty hard to go online and, you know, research what the County Commission has been doing,” Duncan said. “And so I think, you know, that's an area that can greatly improve.”

Political connections run deep in his family. He’s the grandson and son, respectively, of Congressmen John Duncan and Jimmy Duncan. His aunt is state Sen. Becky Duncan Massey. Some local politicos have rumored that he was being groomed to one day take the 2nd District seat in Congress, currently held by U.S. Rep. Tim Burchett, before his transgressions as trustee.

“The reason I'm running basically, is I want to help people, and I come from a family where public service has definitely been emphasized,” Duncan said. “At the County Clerk's office — I call this the front door of county government, or the front porch — it’s a chance to help just a wide variety of people. … Not everybody’s going to deal with the courts or the mayor’s office, but just about everybody is going to have to deal with the County Clerk’s office in some way.”

He and his wife are parents of twin boys.

Rodney Lane

Lane worked under Mike Padgett, a six-term Knox County Clerk, back when Clerk’s Office employees would go to the mall a couple nights a week to hand out car tag renewals.

“We would get off work at 4:30, and like two nights a week, we would go to East Town Mall … and we would set up a table in front of JC Penney or Dillard’s and sell decals. All we could do is take a check or cash.”

When Foster Arnett Jr. was elected clerk in 2008, he brought in his own staff, and Lane left the office.

On his campaign Facebook page, Lane said that he wants to bring in staff members who understand the job, not just political friends. He wants to cross-train staffers so they can backfill each other as needed. And he added that he supports transparency and efficient operations. His other platform positions are to treat county residents with respect and efficiency, operate with integrity and transparency, and look for improvements to service and communication. He singles out the integrity angle in his campaign communications, with the footnote that he sees that characteristic lacking among elected officials.

“I think Sherry Witt did a great job,” he said. “I just think we need to bring government to the people. And that quote came from Mike Padgett. We work for all the people of Knox County. And I think that, in itself, is something that all office holders need to have.”

Lane worked under Padgett for 15 years, then pursued other ventures in the private sector. Lately, he said, he’s been helping his parents and assisting his wife in her business making custom athletics and logo merchandise. He and his wife have two children.

“I've always been involved in the county,” Lane said. “I’ve always helped people (campaign) in elections. This is the first time I ever put my name on the ballot, and I told my wife, I said, ‘You know, let’s just try. You know what? What’s it gonna hurt?’”

John Whitehead

Whitehead has worked in county offices for decades, first as an employee in the Property Assessor’s office, then a four-term property assessor.

“Well, public service is my passion, and it’s also, you know, my life,” Whitehead said. “I’ve been doing that my whole life.”

When asked why he turned an eye to the Clerk’s Office, he said that he wasn’t ready to retire just yet, and hit a refrain.

“I enjoy helping people,” Whitehead said. “It makes me happy. Gives me a good feeling when I can help them, and I don’t mind. I always had an open door all the same to my phone calls. And that’s what I like doing.”

Since term limits forced him to leave the Property Assessor’s Office, he said he’s been doing yard work and helping out neighbors, and doing some work to help people appeal a property valuation. “So I’m actually looking for something to do,” he said. When asked what makes him stand out among the field, he leaned on his time as property assessor.

“Well, I’m the only candidate that successfully managed and operated a public office, so I think that helps me a lot,” he said. While he was the property assessor, the office oversaw four countywide reappraisals. He says that the Property Assessor’s office is the only place he’s ever worked.

“I’m running for county clerk,” he said, “just to continue my public service.”

His website says that he has experience managing large-scale public records and government operations, and promises transparency and accountability in county government. He wants to expand access to public records, but did not specify what that would look like, exactly.

“I think my name recognition is pretty well known,” Whitehead said, “and I think I got a pretty good reputation.”

Whitehead is a widower, but has two children, four grandchildren and a great-granddaughter, with another great-grandchild on the way.

Correction: This article has been updated with the correct name of former U.S. Rep. John Duncan.