Adam Lowe became the first State Senator of the newly created District 1 by capturing over 80 percent of the vote Tuesday night. Lowe won all four counties in the district carrying over 80 percent in all the counties. In Rhea County, Lowe won easily by taking 6,504 or 86 percent of the vote to Patricia Waters of Athens garnering 1,085 or 14 percent of the vote.
Mr. Lowe said late Tuesday night that he was very thankful to all the voters in the First District for placing their confidence in him to represent them and their family values in Nashville.
“I feel blessed and am excited to start this new venture,” he said.
Joining Mr.
Lowe in Nashville will be incumbent Ron Travis (R-Dayton) for his sixth term as representative of the 31
st district. He handily carried all counties in the district, which includes Rhea, Bledsoe, Sequatchie and Van Buren County was added this year. Rep. Travis carried all counties over 80 percent of the vote. His largest margin was in Bledsoe County where he won 88 percent of the vote to David Brown’s 12 percent.
Rep. Travis said he felt honored to receive such a vote by the people he has represented over the years and from his new county of Van Buren. In his first run in that county, he received 1,528 votes to Mr. Brown’s 290 votes.
Rhea County went with the rest of the state in sending Bill Lee back to the governor's mansion. He got 85 percent of the vote to Dr. Jason Martins 14 percent. It was worth note that Dayton Mayor Hurley Marsh received a write-in vote for governor.
Rhea County also voted to send seven term Rep. Scott DesJarlais back to Congress for another two years. Overall Rep. DesJarlais got 70 percent of the vote to his nearest competitor Wayne Steele’s 26 percent.
Rhea County voted in favor of all four of the constitutional amendments.
Tom Davis, administrator of Elections for Rhea County, said the election will be certified on Nov. 23. A total of 7,737 people voted in the election with some 3,000 in early voting. There are about 21,000 registered voters in the county.