Republican Joe Graves will fill the State House seat vacated in November by Paul Scott. Graves declared victory after receiving 10,290 votes. Democrat Steve Losey received 8,173 and Green Party Candidate Cary Neuville-Justice received 803.
Graves remained confident for a victory, and says he’ll make jobs and public safety a priority.
“We need to keep jobs here, we need to get jobs here, make it a better place for people raise their families and have jobs, and we need to work on public safety; those are the two big initiatives that I worked on as a county commissioner for the last few years, and will continue working on as a state representative,” Graves said earlier Tuesday.
Democrat Steve Losey is planning to run for the full term in November.
“It’s been exciting,” Losey said, “It’s been challenging, it’s been fun, I’ve met lots of folks, heard a lot of different things from folks across the 51st District about the things they’re eager for me to do, that I’m ready to hit the ground running.”
Neuvill-Justice, who won 4 percent of the votes Tuesday, said another run isn’t out of the question.
“We’re going to take a look at the momentum, we fee like the momentum is building, and people do really want the choice, so that’s a very real possibility that we may just keep right on going.”
