Lewis County Herald - Serving Hohenwald, Lewis County Tennessee Since 1898

The election results came in late last Thursday night showing a divided Lewis County with some contested races being won by as little as seven votes.

Election Commissioner Rusty Isbell reported that a total of 1,647 people voted during early voting and 1,125 people voted on election day. The 2020 Census reported that Lewis County had 12,131 in population.

City Vice Mayor Don Barber and Secretary of the Industrial Development Board Rob Inman read the results to hundreds of Lewis Countians tuning into their Facebook livestream to hear the results.

As you have probably heard by now, the sales tax increase passed and our current County Mayor Jonah Keltner was re-elected in another tight race. Districts Seven, Three and One were swing-districts for the sales tax increase, and districts One, Four and Nine played an instrumental part in Keltner’s re-election.

In this article, readers can see a breakdown of local results and state results. Hotly contested races also include a district-by-district breakdown.

State Election Results

Tennessee Governor

Incumbent Governor Bill Lee ran unopposed on the Republican ticket with three candidates running on the Democratic ticket. Through local voting, Gov. Lee received a total of 1,953 votes. Democratic candidate Jason Martin received 200 votes, Camita Atwater received 85 and J.B. Smiley received 59 votes. Governor Lee received the majority vote in every district.

On the state level, Martin had the most votes for the Democratic party with 101,221 votes. Gov. Lee won the Republican ticket with 494,195 votes.

U.S. House of Representatives

A total of 1,987 registered voters made their voice heard for the U.S. House of Representatives, District 5 race. There were eleven candidates in this race. The top five were as follows: Andy Ogles (R) with 863 votes at 37.18 percent of the total votes, Beth Harwell (R) with 419 votes at 18.05 percent, Heidi Campbell (D) with 334 votes at 14.4 percent, Kurt Winstead with 236 votes at 11.88 percent and Natisha Brooks with 184 votes at 9.26 percent.

Ogles won the majority vote in nearly every district except for District 1 where the Democratic candidate, Campbell, received 83 votes and Ogles received 61.

At the state level, Ogles won with 21,298 total votes at 36.9 percent. Heidi Campbell won the Democratic vote with 30,711 votes.

TN House of Representatives

A total of 2,200 locals cast their vote for District 69 of the Tennessee House of Representatives. There were six candidates in this race. The top three were as follows: Brian Johnson (R) with 933 votes at 42.4 percent, Jody Barrett (R) with 466 at 21.18 percent and Jeff Eby (R) with 398 votes at 18.09 percent.

Johnson won nearly every district in Lewis County except for District 1 where Democratic candidate, Val Sloan, received two more votes than Johnson.

Barrett received the Republican ticket with 3,291 total votes at 39.7 percent and Johnson came in second with 2,823 votes at 34.1 percent of the total votes cast. Candie Hedge received the Democratic ticket with 942 votes while Sloan received 772 votes.

State Executive Committeeman

There were two candidates for this position. Seth James Campbell (D) won the local vote with 224 total votes while his opponent Gregory Hanners (D) received 73 votes.

Campbell won the state’s vote with 3,692 while Hanners received 1,528 votes.

State Executive Committeewoman

There were three candidates vying for the position. Angie McClanahan (R) won the local vote with 952 in total votes, Julie Quan (R) received 382 and Vicki Hale (D) received 304. Nearly every district voted in favor of McClanahan except for District 1 where this race ended in a tie between McClanahan and Hale with 71 votes.

Hale won the Democratic ticket with 5,097 votes. McClanahan won the Republican ticket with 14,060 votes while Quan received 4,981 votes.

County Election Results

Circuit Court Judge

Judge Mike Spitzer (R) ran for District 32 Circuit Court Judge unopposed and received a total of 2,440 local votes.

District Attorney General

Hans Schwendimann (R) ran for District 32 District Attorney unopposed and received 2,342 local votes.

Public Defender

Melanie Totty Cagle (R) ran for District 32 Public Defender unopposed and received 2,122 votes.

County Mayor

The County Mayor race ended in a close victory for incumbent Jonah Keltner and his opponent Shane Blackwood. Keltner received 1,364 votes, which was only 21 votes more than Blackwood who received 1,343 votes.

The mayoral race was neck and neck the whole way through even when broken down by district. The largest lead at any point was District 1 which had 74 more votes in favor of Keltner than for Blackwood.

District One voted 69 for Blackwood and 143 for Keltner, District Two voted 155 for Blackwood and 140 for Keltner, District Three voted 162 for Blackwood and 173 for Keltner, District Four voted 146 for Blackwood and 180 for Keltner, District Five voted 177 for Blackwood and 129 for Keltner, District Six voted 166 for Blackwood and 133 for Keltner, District Seven voted 183 for Blackwood and 160 for Keltner, District Eight voted 134 for Blackwood and 131 for Keltner, and District Nine voted 151 for Blackwood and 175 for Keltner.

County Commission

This year the Commission went from 18 commissioners to nine with only one commissioner representing each district.

Incumbent Larry Pigg ran unopposed for District 1 and received 195 votes.

Incumbent Brian Peery ran unopposed for District 2 and received 258 votes.

Three candidates ran for District 3 and the results were as follows: Timmie Hinson won with 214 votes, Larry Hensley received 72 and Daniel Kilpatrick received 44 votes.

Two candidates ran for District 4 with incumbent Kyle Bobo winning with 210 votes. His opponent, and former commissioner, Connie Sharp, received 111 votes.

Austin Carroll ran unopposed for District 5 and received a total of 259 votes.

Two candidates ran for District 6 in which incumbent Aren Ragsdale won with 169 votes. His opponent, Gary Van Talley, received 104 votes.

Bradley Loveless, former Solid Waste Director, ran unopposed for District 7 and received 263 votes.

Incumbent Bill Dyer ran unopposed for District 8 with 219 votes.

Incumbent Caleb Feichtinger ran unopposed for District 9 with 261 votes.

School Board

Incumbent Cassie Couch ran unopposed for District 1 and received 183 votes.

Incumbent Lindsey Himes ran unopposed for District 2 and received 276 votes.

Incumbent Phyllis Townsend ran for District 3 against opponent Richard Mayberry. Townsend received 259 votes while her opponent received two.

Sallie Pollock and Josh White ran for District 7. Pollock received 169 votes while White received 160.

Incumbent Blake Farr ran for District 9 against his opponent Cody Mitchell. In another tight race, Mitchell won with 166 votes while Farr received 159.

Constable

Incumbent James (Zeke) Sharpe ran unopposed for District 1 Constable, and received 174 votes.

Incumbent Donn Kraemer ran for District 2 against opponent Alex Pulley. Kraemer won with 147 while Pulley received 82 votes.

Incumbent Lawrence Kinzie ran for District 3 against opponent David DeBord. Kinzie won with 172 while DeBord received 113 votes.

Incumbent Jonathan Pitts ran unopposed for District 4 and received 250 votes.

Incumbent Dave Rentschler ran unopposed for District 5 and received 242 votes.

Incumbent Patrick Baxter ran unopposed for District 6 and received 243 votes.

Incumbent David McRight ran unopposed for District 7 and received 264 votes.

Incumbent Justin Davis ran unopposed for District 8 and received 202 votes.

Incumbent Ryan Johnston ran unopposed for District 9 and received 273 votes.