By Brandon Moseley
Alabama Political Reporter
On Tuesday, January 20, Republican voters went to the polls and elected Phoenix City Councilman, Chris Blackshear, to represent District 80 in the Alabama House of Representatives.
Blackshear said on Facebook, “Just wanted to say again how overwhelmed I am with your show of support! Let’s work together to move Lee and Russell counties forward!”
According to original reporting by WTVM’s Andrew McDevitt, at press time, Blackshear led with 60.96 percent of the vote, James McGill followed with 31.48 percent and Tommy Pugh was in third with 7.56 percent of the vote.
Blackshear was endorsed by the Business Council of Alabama.
Blackshear said, “I am honored to have the endorsement of Alabama’s business community. My top priority is the creation of good-paying jobs for Russell and Lee County.”
Blackshear is the director of account management for the North American Consumer Division of TSYS.
The seat was vacated by the death of Representative Leslie Vance (R).
Kenecia Battle had qualified to run on the Democratic ticket for the District 80 seat, but has since dropped out of the race.
The Alabama Democratic Party told the Alabama Political Reporter that the Party will name a candidate to face Blackshear by January 29.
Blackshear told the Phoenix City News: “I just think it’s important to give back to the community and Rep. Vance has done such a great job over the last 20 years when he was our representative in the State House and I just felt like now was a time to carry on what he started, build upon that and give back to the citizens of District 80.”
Original reporting by WTVM TV and the Phoenix City News contributed to this report.
