Shortly before 11 p.m. Tuesday, Rep. David Myers addressed about 100 supporters through a bullhorn to announce his win over Tasha Dillon in the House of Representatives District 98 race.
“We’re victorious again, against all the odds, because of two things: because of God and you,” Myers said. “God showed favor on us tonight. They put their best feet forward, and they still couldn’t beat you.
“We got out there, we outworked them, we got more folks to the polls than they did, and we won! We won! We won! We won.”
The incumbent Democrat picked up 2,721 votes (58 percent) to Dillon’s 1,981 to retain his House seat for a fifth consecutive term. No Republicans are running for the position, so the race is decided.
“It feels good to win. It feels better that the people in District 98 saw my experience and my leadership in the House, and basically looked down the road and they saw the future,” Myers said. “They saw they would rather have me up there and my seniority than to send somebody up there with no seniority, no inroads and no leadership.”
Dillon was not available for comment.
Both candidates entered the race having crossed paths before when the McComb motel tax died in 2009. Myers and Rep. Sam Mims, R-McComb, alleged tax proceeds were not being spent correctly. and the bill later died on the House floor. Myers spearheaded an effort to revive the tax last year.
The tax funded the now-defunct Department of Community Relations and Tourism, which Dillon ran until the department was dissolved in May to free up funds to hire new police officers.
The campaign was not without its ugly moments as well. Dillon’s campaign mailed flyers with claims of Myers’ poor job performance. He, in turn, responded with advertisements questioning Dillon’s claims.
“I’m very surprised that my opponent would go with the negative campaigning,” Myers said Tuesday night. “The newcomer — she was dealt a hard lesson. People don’t like negative campaigning. She took campaigning to what we call an all-time low with the mudslinging, falsehoods and deception.”
As for his next term, Myers said he wants to begin a healing process in hopes of creating a united community.
“I felt all along, we could get so much accomplished if we do a better job of working together,” Myers said. “(Today), we plan on building old relationships and starting new relationships.”
