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Dr. Sharon Weldon has won the Chambers County School System Superintendent seat against opponent, Dr. Winford Ashmore. The Republican candidate received 10,007 votes compared to Ashmore’s 3,976 votes. She walked away with 71 percent of the votes. The provisional ballots will be counted next Tuesday. 

The Chambers County Courthouse was packed on Tuesday night as the results came in, including both candidates. Weldon had become the Republican candidate after defeating the sitting Superintendent, Dr. Casey Chambley, in the primary election in March. Ashmore ran unopposed in the Democratic primary. 

In a live interview posted to the VTN Facebook page, Weldon reflected on the win. 

“Still overwhelmed…I am so grateful to the people in Chambers County, to know that I’ve got that support from my county, from my home, I’m so excited,” Weldon said. 

“I talked to students today on speaking your mind on the ballots…the votes are done, they are in the past, but we are all in this for the children of Chambers County.”

Weldon discussed the need to move on consolidations saying, “I have to hit the ground running, I know that the issue of consolidation was just paused, I have to get in there and look and hopefully see some details we haven’t seen before so we know the direction we need to go in.”

She also discussed testing as a priority, “Ultimately number one is student achievement, make sure we pour everything into the students that we can before that Spring testing happens.”

Ashmore, a former CCSD employee, was also present at the courthouse as the results poured in. 

“[Weldon] won fair and square….Congratulations to her,” Ashmore said.

He added “I won’t go away after this year, I will still be around, I’ll be helping the community advocate for what’s best for the students of Chambers County still.” 

Weldon will take office in January alongside Frederick “Reco” Newton who won the District 1 school board seat on Tuesday. Both will be first term candidates.