Delgado, Smolek, Culp win Primary election




Mark Delgado, center, looks over early election results on Tuesday evening at Bio Town Ag, which hosted Republicans as they awaited results. Delgado won the prosecutor’s race in the primary election by 488 votes (57.62%). Amy Graham-McCarty/News & Review

Mark Delgado, center, looks over early election results on Tuesday evening at Bio Town Ag, which hosted Republicans as they awaited results. Delgado won the prosecutor’s race in the primary election by 488 votes (57.62%). Amy Graham-McCarty/News & Review

Republican candidates and supporters constantly refreshed the election results website on their phones Tuesday evening awaiting the final vote count.

In the end, Mark Delgado would secure his place in the November election in his run for White County Prosecutor. Mike Smolek will be on the ballot as the Republican candidate for White County Commissioner.

“I’m just happy,” Delgado said after learning he had won. “We were able to put in the work and we got it done.

“I am happy and grateful to everyone who pitched in. It shows that hard work pays off in the end, it’s never easy.”

Delgado earned 57.62% of the votes (1,846) to secure his win. His opponent, current White County Deputy Prosecutor Stacey Diener received 1,358 votes (42.38%).

In giving remarks after the Republican Party’s election event, hosted by Bio Town Ag, Reynolds, Delgado said, “Thank you Stacey You were a wonderful opponent. It was a tough race.”

If he wins the November election, Delgado said he will continue to support law enforcement, “regardless of any disagreements we have.”

Mike Smolek, left, and his wife, Jaci, right, talk with Brian Furrer of Bio Town Ag.

“We will also seize money when drug dealers come in. We are gonna go after them,” he said.

Following the results, Diener reflected on the low voter turnout for the primary election.

“These are the numbers: White County has 17,287 registered voters, only 3,204 voters participated in the Republican primary,” she said. “As a result, 1,846 voters selected our next White County prosecutor.

“Food for thought.”

Smolek was pleased with the election results and thankful to his opponents Mark Helm and Don Hurd.

“Thank you, Mark and Don,” he said. “It was a good race; it was a clean race.”

Smolek earned 40.06% (1,248) of the votes in the election. Helms received 33.10% (1,031), and Hurd 26.84% (836).

“I just want to thank everyone that helped,” he said. “We have a good support system in the community.

“There’s a lot of good people in our community and they deserve nothing but my best.”

Smolek said he wants “more transparency” in the office of the commissioner.

“We need to be available to people and the public needs to have more input on what is going on,” he said. “I want to see all the communities in White County grow. They have to prosper if we are going to keep young people here.”

In the District 16 State Representative race, Kendell Culp took the win with 49.33% (1,542) of the vote. Bryan Washburn received 33.37% (1,043) and Barbara Neihouser received 17.31% (541) of the votes.

In White County, voter turnout was low with just 20.40% of registered voters making their way to the polls. Of the 3,526 votes cast, 151 were paper absentee votes; 947 with walk-in absentee votes; and 2,428 votes were cast on election day.

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