Bill Bowen emerged as the victor in the Republican primary in the race for Justice of the Peace Precinct 3, edging out challengers Freddy Redmon and Dudley Graham Tuesday night.
Bowen finished with 1,107 votes (winning 56.80 percent of the vote) while Redmon finished with 587 (30.12 percent) and Graham finished with 255 (13.08 percent).
“We’re very happy,” Bowen said. “We’re very jubilant. We worked hard. My opponents ran a good clean race. There was no mud-slinging. We worked hard and knocked on a lot of doors and had a good team.”
Bowen will now face Democrat Gerardo Arzate in November’s election who ran unopposed in his party’s primary, finishing with 375 votes.
With the victory, Bowen also avoids having a runoff.
“I knew there was a good chance that there could be a runoff but I was praying there wasn’t,” Bowen said. “It’s one less race I have to worry about.”
In early voting, Bowen’s lead was never in doubt as he received 551 while early votes (56 percent) while Redmon had 303 (30.79 percent) and Graham had 120 (13.21 percent).
Bowen owed his success to his campaign team.
“It was a good team,” Bowen said. “There were a lot of people talking and a lot of people working. There was a lot of door knocking. It was a good organization.”
November’s race for the Justice of the Peace Precinct 3 will take place Nov. 8.
“We’re going to going to work hard and continue doing what we’ve been doing,” Bowen said. “Like the saying goes, if it’s not broke, don’t fix it.”
Despite the loss, Redmon was respectful of the voters’ decision.
“All I can say is that it’s been a long nine weeks of interviews,” Redmon said. “I’ve spent about $10,000 out of my pocket and I didn’t take a penny in contributions. If that’s the final result, then the voters have spoken. We should respect their choice.”
This was Redmon’s first time running for a public office.
When asked if he’ll try to run for a public office again, he said it was still too early to tell.
“I’m not sure,” Redmon said. “I can’t tell you that today.”
Graham was also running for public office for the first time.
Graham said if there’s one thing he would’ve done different this election, it would’ve been campaigning earlier.
“I got a started a couple of weeks after everyone else had started,” Graham said. “If I do it again, I might want to get an earlier start and get a few more signs out there. Other than that, there’s not much more you can do other than knocking on the doors and meeting people and talking to them.”
