Newton County voters came out in force Tuesday to participate in the 2019 primary runoff election for governor, lieutenant governor, public service commission and justice court district 2.
As the polls closed and the votes counted, Justin K. Chaney was declared the Republican nominee for Justice Court Judge District 1, having received 966 votes to George “Butch” Meaders’ 748.
Chaney said he was “overwhelmed” by the support he received during the primary.
“I was amazed,” he said. “I was overwhelmed with the support the citizens of District 2 showed.”
In the coming months, Chaney said he was looking forward to getting back out on the campaign trail to meet more people and hearing more from the residents of his district. Come November, he said he was looking forward to a good, clean race between him and Democratic candidate Greg Morgan and Independent candidate Charlie Walker.
“It’s going to be a clean race and a tight race, and may the best man win,” he said.
In the state races, Newton County voters choose to back Bill Waller Jr., former Mississippi Supreme Court Justice, in the governor’s race against former Lt. Gov Tate Reeves. Waller received 2059 votes, or 54.44 percent of the 3,782 votes cast. Reeves received 17,20 votes, or 45.48 percent.
Statewide, however, Waller’s victory in Newton County was overshadowed as more Mississippians cast their votes for Reeves to be the nominee to face off against Attorney General Jim Hood in the November general election. The AP declared Reeves the winner of the runoff shortly after 9 p.m., having received more than 117,000 votes, about 54 percent.
Newton County residents were also overruled at the state level in the race for the Republican nominee for attorney general. Locally, Andy Taggart took the nomination with 52.37 percent, 1,970 votes, compared with 1,789, 47.55 percent, for Lynn Fitch.
At the state level, the attorney general runoff was neck-and-neck throughout most of the night Tuesday, but when the numbers settled, Lynn Fitch was declared the winner with 52.1 percent to Taggart’s 47.9 percent.
Fitch with appear on the November ballot alongside Democrat nominee Jennifer Collins.
On the Democrat ballot, Newton County voters chose to back De’Keither Stamps, who received 316 votes to Dorothy Bedford’s 179 votes in the race for Transportation Commissioner Central District. Stamps, who received 59.5 percent of the vote statewide, will face off against Republican nominee Brent Bailey in November.
