PRINCETON (WVVA) - An incumbent county commissioner was ousted Tuesday, while Mercer County's sheriff won his fourth term.
County commissioner Jay Mills was defeated in the Democratic Primary by Terry Hughes. Hughes collected 2,565 votes to Mills' 1,979. Ken Hendrick placed third with 1,038.
Hughes will face Gene Buckner in November. Buckner, with 1,566 votes, defeated Marshall Mann on the GOP ticket. Mann collected 921 votes.
Incumbent Sheriff Don Meadows won his fourth term in office, defeating challenger Kevin Weiss 3,318 to 2,532. There was no candidate filed on the Republican side, meaning Meadows has no challenger awaiting on the November ballot.
Meadows told WVVA News following his win that this would be his final election.
In the county's other contested races, incumbents ruled in the vote for magistrate as Jim Dent, Mike Flanigan, Rick Fowler, Susan Honaker and Charles Poe all received enough votes to make the November ballot. They will be joined by Republican candidate Sandra Dorsey, who was unopposed.
Mary Alice Kaufman and Paul Hodges won in the Board of Education race, while Sharon Gearhart claimed the most votes in the Assessor race.
In state and national races, a Texas inmate garnered a surprising number of votes in the Democratic presidential primary. Keith Judd received 2,455 votes while President Barack Obama received 2,486 votes. On the Republican side, Mitt Romney easily led the county with 1,875 votes. The next closest candidate was Rick Santorum with 312. Ron Paul had 221 votes, Newt Gingrich received 166 while Charles 'Buddy' Roemer had 20.
View all of Mercer County's vote totals from the Secretary of State's Office
