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Renea Jones won the Tennessee Fourth District House seat with only 4,485 votes which was twice as many votes as her opponent, Curt Alexander, received. Jones is from Unicoi County and Alexander is mayor of Elizabethton. Unofficially, less than 7,000 votes were cast in the primary for the Tennessee House seat.

Jones started her campaign for the House seat early and worked hard, hosting numerous campaign events in Carter County as well as in her home county, Unicoi. Jones is chairman of the Unicoi County Republican Party and owner of Jones and Church Farms. She is also a small business advocate and former school board member. 

She will move on to the November general election, which will be uncontested. No Democrats or independents ran in the primary election nor have filed to run in the general election in November.

Even though only part of Carter County is included in the Fourth District, its number of voters is more than that of Unicoi County.

When we fail to exercise our right to vote, we give up our power to determine who becomes a leader and our influence, in this case, the state legislature in Nashville.

Voting is not just a right, it’s an ethical responsibility. And a candidate’s ethics, or the ethics of a particular issue, should be central to our choice. 

But in these challenging times, voting – and considering a candidate’s ethics in our decision – can seem daunting. From the practicalities of mail-in ballots or showing up in person, it may be tempting to sit out an election rather than voting. When we abstain from voting we give up our power to determine who becomes a leader and influences the world – ethically and beyond. 

Choosing not to vote diminishes your influence on matters such as education, domestic policy, taxes, appointments to state agencies, etc. You also forfeit your voice on cutting-edge issues such as internet safety, autonomous weapons, and artificial intelligence that will shape society with more widespread and unpredictable consequences than ever before. 

And because you have the power to choose, you still have the responsibility for the choice. Opting not to vote does not absolve us of ethical responsibility for the risks and opportunities that ensue when a new leader takes office. 

We as voters have a responsibility to look at the stakeholders and consequences beyond our own district – people whom we will never know, problems that arise all across this state, that indirectly affect all of us. Voting is a signal to people around the world that if they cannot vote, or express themselves freely where they live, those of us who can will keep them front of mind. Voting – or not – is a statement of who we are as a nation. If we all vote, and integrate the candidates’ ethics into our choice, just imagine the collective raising of ethical standards we would elect.

We congratulate Jones on her election. Her hard work paid off, and we have no doubt that she will work just as hard in Nashville as she did campaigning, and that she will represent Carter and Unicoi counties well. She had a formidable opponent in Elizabethton’s Curt Alexander, who perhaps was not as well known in rural Carter County as he is in Elizabethton.

Again, if you did not vote, you have no right to complain when things in Nashville don’t go as you wish or you think they should have.