The local races were few in Coweta County Tuesday night. But in the end the important races for the Coweta County Board of Education seat for District 1 was taken overwhelmingly by Amy Dees and the District 1 at-large seat was won by a slim margin by April Parker. Coweta voters also cast their lot with Nathan Deal, Rep. Lynn Westmoreland and Sen. Johnny Isakson.
The school board’s District 1 seat pitted Amy Dees against Andrew Krause and write-in candidate Jimmy Harrison. Dees garnered 70.91 percent of the vote, with Krause taking 26.99 percent and Harrison receiving 2.1 percent.
Dees in the contest took 4,653 votes compared to 1,771 for Krause and 138 for Harrison.
“Our children will be heard,” Dees said Wednesday. “We finally have communication between the school board and the classroom. We have bridged that gap.”
The countywide District 1 at-large school board race between incumbent Michael Sumner and challenger April Parker saw Parker win with 50.25 percent of the vote compared to 49.30 percent for Sumner.
Parker took 16,010 votes compared to the 15,708 received by Sumner.
“Praise the Lord,” Parker said after the election. “I’m excited to start working on the issues and I hope being a part of the school board can help push along a greater accountability and transparency.”
In the Congressional race for the District 3 seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, Republican incumbent Lynn Westmoreland (Grantville) took 76.35 percent of the Coweta vote over Democratic challenger Frank Saunders (Midland) who received 23.53 percent.
Across District 3, Westmoreland took 158,966 votes, or 69 percent, compared to Saunders’ 71,036, or 31 percent.
The race for Georgia’s governor also turned out good for Republicans, with Nathan Deal taking the majority of votes in Coweta and across the state.
In Coweta, Deal (R) defeated Roy Barnes (D) 70.52 percent to 24.27 percent, or 25,966 votes to 8,935. And across Georgia, Deal bested Barnes 53 percent to 43 percent.
Incumbent U.S. Senator Johnny Isakson (R) defeated Democratic challenger Michael Thurmond both in Coweta County and statewide.
In Coweta Isakson took 75.09 percent of the vote while Thurmond got 21.50 percent. Statewide, Isakson finished the night with 58 percent compared to 39 percent for Thurmond.
The finally tally in Coweta for the Tuesday elections showed a 52.9 percent voter turnout, with 37,310 out of 70,532 people casting a ballot.
