Gurtler Wins District 8 Race

Earlier this year, many residents of Georgia made the decision to qualify to run for a government office, whether it be local, regional, or statewide government. For four people in North Georgia, they were led to run for the position of state representative for the 8th district. For Rabun County, history was in the making. The last representative from our county, was Knox Bynum, as he served from 1959-1962. However, the district map looks very different today, than in the late 50’s, and Rabun County had a chance to repeat history 54 years later, as three of the four candidates called Rabun County home.

In May’s election, all three Rabun residents received support in the form of a vote, as each candidate received at least 22% of the vote. The battle for second and third place was close, as Kent Woerner received just 19 more votes than Joshua Littrell. Matt Gurtler won in Towns and Union Counties, receiving a total of 4,016 votes. That did secure a victory however, as that only counted for 35% of the total vote. That would mean that the top two candidates, Kent Woerner and Matt Gurtler, would get an extended amount of time to campaign, and try again in the runoff election.

On Tuesday, a winner was crowned, and that was Tiger native, Matt Gurtler. Gurtler defeated Woerner with 61% of the vote, to win the district 8 representative race.

Kent Woerner had a strong showing in Rabun County, where he recorded 1,186 votes, which was 61 votes better than Gurtler. However, the remaining counties in the district, Towns, Union, and White, is what helped Gurtler secure the win. The largest margin of victory was in Union County, where Gurtler received 1,417 votes to Woerner’s 493, a difference of 978 votes.

Gurtler also wanted to say thanks to everyone who made his race a successful one.