There will be a new Marshall County Commissioner following Tuesday’s General Election while a pair of Republican newcomers won the District 1 legislative seat. All of the other races also saw the county going red, again choosing Republican candidates.
Republican incumbent Jason Bender beat out Democratic challenger Gerry Person for the District 3 Commissioner seat 57-43%. For the District 4 Commissioner spot, Republican challenger Andrea Kilker with 51% of the vote beat out incumbent Leron Knebel (D) and Jared Holland (I), with 43% and 7% respectively.
In the District 1 House seat, it was a close race in the county with Republican Logan Manhart taking 26% of the vote and Christopher Reder 24%. Others in that race were Steven McCleerey (D)- 22%, Mark Sumption (D)- 22%, Josh Dennert (L) -3%, and Tamara Lesnar (L)- 2%.
District 1 Republican Senator Mike Rohl ran unopposed and received a total of 1,400 votes.
In statewide races, Republican Representative Dusty Johnson won handily with county voters over Democratic challenger Sheryl Johnson by a 71-29% margin. Republican Kristie Fiegen will retain her spot as state Public Utilities Commissioner, defeating Forrest Wilson (D) and A. Gideon Oakes (L) with a vote margin of 65-32-4 percents respectively.
Marshall County residents voted to retain Supreme Court Justice Scott Myren by a 84% yes to 16% no margin.
For president, the county went red again, choosing the Trump/Vance ticket which took 61% of the vote. Harris/Walz received 37%. Libertarians Oliver/ter Maat got 1% and Independents Kennedy/Shanahan 1%.
The vast majority of the statewide ballot questions were defeated. There were four Constitutional Amendments on the ballot. Only one was given the nod by county voters as they very narrowly said yes to F to adopt Medicaid work requirements by only a 19 vote margin. The most talked about amendment was likely G, regarding abortion rights. Marshall County voters said no on this one, with 60% voting no. Amendment E, regarding references to government officials, was voted down, 61-39%. H, establishing open primaries, also was defeated among county voters with 70% voting no.
The two Initiated Measures were also hot topics. IM 28, the grocery/consumables tax repeal, failed with 75% voting no in the county. IM 29 legalizing recreational marijuana also failed with 58% voting no. Referred Law 21 regarding carbon pipeline regulations was rejected by county voters, with 60% voting no.
As of results that were reported at 10:30 p.m. Tuesday night, Marshall County voters agreed with state results in all of the political races. They also agreed with state results on the seven ballot issues.
Voter turnout in the county was strong at 76.26% with 2,156 out of 2,827 registered voters casting ballots. A total of 594 ballots were mailed in or voted early at the auditor’s office.
