Johnston stays on as Clerk
Nov. 10—CATLETTSBURG — Despite an enthusiastic insurgent campaign by a young political challenger, Boyd County Clerk Kevin Johnston kept his position by a two-to-one margin.
With 65.38% of the vote in his favor, Republican Johnston kept his seat for a full four-year term, after receiving a challenge from Democrat D.J. Rymer.
Johnston was elected in 2020 to fill out the seat left by Democratic Clerk Debbie Jones, who resigned after disagreements with the fiscal court.
After closing the books on the election, Johnston said he was thankful for all the support from friends and family.
"I want to thank my family for the support they've given me in this campaign and I appreciate the opportunity to continue serving the people of Boyd County as I have served them over the last two years," Johnston said.
In response to the results, Rymer — who received 4,903 votes — thanked everyone who supported him in the race.
"Although tonight wasn't our night, I am honored to have thousands of votes from Boyd Countians," he said. "I want to thank everyone who showed their support. God has blessed me with many wonderful people and I want to congratulate my opponent."
Here's a breakdown of some other key races:
County Attorney
Despite the name recognition and all the signs plastering the county, Democratic County attorney candidate Pat Hedrick got a walloping by Curtis Dotson, a Republican.
Hedrick, who was gunning for the vacancy left by Phil Hedrick who is retiring after this term, received 6,168 votes to Dotson's 7,861.
Among the issues Dotson ran on, he proposed getting the child support office back to Boyd County.
Ashland City Commission
All the incumbents on the Ashland City Commission retained their seats by comfortable margins in a pick-four-out-of-eight race for the at-large seats.
Sitting commissioners Josh Blanton, Marty Gute, Amanda Clark and Cheryl Spriggs took a combined total of 10,620 votes out of 17,324 cast for the seat.
Undervotes in the race — meaning people didn't vote for it — tallied up to 7,160.
Unofficial results from Tuesday night showed the bottom vote-getter for the winners was Spriggs, who received 2,482 votes. Local chiropractor Dr. Dwain Porter came in at fifth place, taking 1,803 votes.
The top vote-getter in the race was Blanton, with 2,955 votes, while Dave Williams took the bottom floor of the cellar with 1,549 votes.
Amendment 2
The abortion question posed for voters in Kentucky was surprisingly close in Boyd County, with "no" votes leading most of the of the night by several hundred votes.
The amendment would outlaw abortion in almost all circumstances.
However, once all the precincts were in, the yes vote pulled out ahead by less than 200 votes.
Final results showed "yes" votes tallied at 6,810 and "no" votes at 6,638 — 910 voters didn't cast a ballot either way, while 38 ballots had answered marked.
District Judge
In the 32nd Judicial District Judge seat Division 2, attorney Devon Reams followed her father's foot steps to the bench by a fairly decent margin.
Reams, daughter of current District Court Judge Gerald Reams, beat out domestic relations commissioner Anna Ruth by 1,800 votes to take the seat.
Reams has worked in private practice and also has served in the county attorneys' office.
