With an unofficial vote count, Republican John Carey will be serving the state of Ohio for two more years as the state representative for the 87th Ohio House District, covering Jackson, Vinton and Gallia counties, as well as parts of Lawrence and Ross counties.

After all of the precincts were in, Carey received a total of 22,906 votes, with Democrat Fred Deel receiving 11,586 votes, and Libertarian Tim Sanders getting a total of 1,154 votes. Carey won with 64 percent of the votes.

In Lawrence County, Carey received 5,917 votes, compared with Deel’s 2,704 and Sanders’ 312 votes.

“I was really pleased, especially for the support from Lawrence County,” Carey said. “I’m really grateful the people gave me a chance to represent them for another two years.”

Carey is in his eighth year as senator for the 17th Ohio Senate District and served eight years as the representative for the 94th District from 1995 until 2002.

“I am going to work with the House and other government officials to do the best we can to represent this part of the state,” Carey said. Carey is confident his experience will benefit Ohio.

While Deel is unsure of his future plans, he said he will spend the next few weeks working on some family commitments.

“We’ll wait a few days and regroup and decide and ponder on it and make some decisions,” Deel said.

Regardless of the outcome, both candidates were pleased with how the campaign season went.

Deel said he called Carey to congratulate him and compliment him.

“I felt it was a very good race he ran and one I very much appreciated being involved in,” Deel said. “It was not negative on either side. We wish him the best of luck in Columbus.”

“We had a good campaign,” Carey said. “We both stuck on the issues. He has a nice family and I wish him the best of luck.”

Shortly after learning the results, Carey said he was finishing up his winning night by taking his sons, Justin 14, and Jordan, 8, home to get ready for school in the morning.

Carey is 51 years old and resides in Wellston with his wife Linley and their two sons.

In addition to his years as senator and representative, he also served as an aide to former Congressman Clarence E. Miller and was mayor of Wellston from 1988 until 1995.