Texarkana, Ark. School District's Zone 5 Board Member Laney Harris was defeated in Tuesday's election by challenger Chrystal Marlar, removing him from the position he's held since 2014.
Unofficial numbers show Harris with 183 votes and Marlar with 245, garnering 57 percent of the vote.
Zone 3's Jesse Buchanan ran unopposed and received 178 votes. Zone 6 incumbent Roger Douglas got 109 votes, with challenger Lissa Henry receiving 57 votes.
Harris has the distinction of simultaneously holding elected positions on the local school board and city board during two different stints since the late-1990s.
He initially served on the in the TASD Board of Education Zone 5 spot from 1995 to 2001. In 1997, he was elected to the Texarkana, Ark., City Board of Directors and served in that position until 2004, according to records.
Harris re-entered the local political realm in 2009 when he was elected again to the city board, where he now serves. Five years later, he was again elected to the TASD board after defeating Jennifer Futrell.
In the 2014 school board race, Harris' platform was expanding the high school vocation program with more skilled-labor training such as masonry, heating and air, plumbing, electrical and barbering, promoting the concept of fairness, accountability and equality, along with decreasing the dropout rate and increasing the graduation rate.
During his time in public service, Harris has made his share of headlines.
In June, Harris was reprimanded by his fellow city board members for actions that Mayor Ruth Penney-Bell said reflected "badly" on the board and the city.
The reprimand letter stated three instances of Harris' alleged misbehavior, stating he used his position as a director to open a city building and host a meeting without the city manager's knowledge, had an altercation with a citizen at RailFest and put himself in a position for a harassment complaint.
Harris maintained that his censure by the city Board of Directors was based on hearsay and an invention meant to silence him.
Harris also rebutted the board's claims that some of his recent behavior is unacceptable.
In December 2011, he filed a voting rights lawsuit that alleged city boundaries dilute black voting power. The city's wards were redrawn based on 2010 federal census data. But in early 2015, the judge ruled the process was transparent with no attempts to dilute the African-American vote.