Rick Lohnes defeated his Democratic challenger in a race for Clark County commissioner, according to final, unofficial results Tuesday night.
Lohnes easily defeated Seth Evans, meaning Lohnes will retain his seat as a Clark County commissioner. Lohnes, a former commander of the 178th Wing of the Ohio National Guard, has already served two previous terms.
»»Election 2018: Get the latest results on races in Clark and Champaign Counties
He said he worked hard to campaign once he made a decision to run.
“You never know,” Lohnes said. “Once I had an opponent I went into it full speed and worked hard.”
Neither of the two candidates initially planned to run for the seat. Evans is a small business owner and a local minister in the United Methodist Church. He was picked as a late replacement for Pamela Dixon, a Democrat who dropped out of the race in June to spend more time on her career as a nurse.
Lohnes also previously told the News-Sun he initially also didn’t plan to run for re-election. But he changed his mind because he felt there was unfinished business he wanted to accomplish for the county.
“He got in it late,” Lohnes said of Evans’ campaign, congratulating the Democrat for running a good race. “It’s hard to only campaign half the time.”
Lohnes said one of his most important accomplishments as commissioner was developing a better planning process for the county. The county didn’t make long-term plans for issues like capital improvement or debt management when he first took office, but the county now has a process in place to manage those issues, he said.
Now that he’s won re-election, Lohnes said he planned to continue to work to manage the county budget efficiently and would continue to work on several capital improvement projects for the county.
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