KINGWOOD — Unofficial results showed incumbent Republicans Terri Funk Sypolt and D.R. “Buck” Jennings were re-elected to the House of Delegates.
In the 52nd District, which is comprised only of Preston County, former long-time assessor Sypolt sought a second term in the state legislature. She was opposed by Democrat Gary Knotts, an electrical worker, also from Kingwood, who has never held elected office.
Unofficial totals with all 28 precincts reporting in Preston County showed Sypolt as the winner with 2,924 votes (54.30 percent) and Knotts with 2,459 (45.66 percent).
“I expected it to be very close because of how the primary went,” Sypolt said. “I figured this was going to be a very close race because I figured a lot of those that I did not have the support of in the primary were going to be back and behind my opponent. A lot of it was the teacher issue.”
When she returns to Charleston, Sypolt said, there’s the big issues like the roads and the opioid epidemic, “which has to be at the top of everybody’s list.” But she’d also like to work on some issues for seniors and veterans.
And, “I would like to work with educating our students when they come out of school, as to the job market that is available, and I feel that we’re not doing that,” she said. Training is needed for those who aren’t going to college, Sypolt said.
The 53rd House district includes parts of Preston and Tucker counties. Jennings, of southern Preston County, was appointed to the seat last year after the death of Delegate Tony Lewis. Democrat Cory Chase, of Tucker County, challenged Jennings.
Unofficial totals in Preston County showed Jennings received 3,202 (66.13 percent) of the Preston votes, and Chase got 1,252 votes (25.86 percent) in the 14 Preston County precincts in the district. Libertarian candidate Austin Zuchowski got 387 votes (7.99 percent) in Preston.
Tucker County has six precincts in the 53rd District. Unofficial results there showed Jennings getting 889 votes (43.81 percent), Chase 1,103 votes (54.36 percent) and Zuchowski 37 votes (1.82 percent).
Unofficial totals for the two counties showed Jennings with 4,091 votes, Chase with 2,355 and Zuchowski with 424.
Jennings said that he would like to continue working on helping fire and EMS services and volunteers, “to help out our communities.” Schools, especially elementary schools, and roads are also on his agenda.
And, “in Tucker County, they have their own set of problems. They have a lot of land mass but very little tax base to run their county. They have a lot of tourists that come into it, and they don’t have a lot of money to take care of them, cause there’s a lot of things that entails.”
That includes EMS and traffic management, he said.
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