By Stephanie Nelson
For The Advance

Tuesday night, Escambia County’s Greg Albritton sealed up the Republican nomination for the state Senate District 22 seat.

The Associated Press called the race for Albritton at 9:19 p.m. At that time, with 97 percent of the district’s vote reported, Albritton had 3,904 votes (58 percent) and Harry D’Olive had 2,850 votes (42 percent).

Albritton will face Democrat Susan Smith of Atmore in November’s general election.

Among Escambia County voters, Albritton ended the night with 1,480 votes (85 percent), to D’Olive’s 260 votes (15 percent).

“Right now, I’m cautiously optimistic,” Albritton said from his post inside the county courthouse Tuesday as he received box returns from other areas in the district via text message. “First, I haven’t won yet. They always say that you want to get out of the runoff at least what you see in the primary election. We did that and more.

“I think that we surpassed that number in every county,” he said. “The people understood and we worked hard to get our message out.”

In the primary, five candidates sought the seat; however, Albritton led the race overwhelmingly, finishing with 951 votes in Escambia County, or 46.28 percent. Among Escambia County voters, D’Olive received 111 votes, or 5 percent, in the primary.

Also Tuesday night, Kevin Hoomes was elected to the Escambia County School Board Seat No. 1 in a runoff against Debbie “Mrs. Mac” Quarles.

Hoomes, of East Brewton, ended the night with 351 votes, or 62.3 percent. Quarles finished with 208 votes, or 37.2 percent.

In the night’s other state races, Escambia County voters cast the following ballots:

• for Secretary of State: Reese McKinney, 617 votes, and John Merrill, 369 votes.

• for State Auditor: Dale Peterson, 318 votes, and Jim Zeigler, 706 votes.

• for Public Service Commission, Place No. 2: Chris “Chip” Beeker Jr., 536 votes, and Terry Dunn, 400 votes.

Voters in Escambia County also overwhelmingly supported the statewide amendment No. 1, with 666 voters casting a “yes” ballot, while 218 cast a “no” ballot.