Dickson County vote rallies Littleton to Republican nomination in 78th District

Despite finishing dead last in the Cheatham County voting, Dickson’s Mary Littleton carried more than half the Dickson County vote to win the Republican nomination for the 78^th District in the Tennessee House of Representatives in Thursday’s election. With an open seat in the newly designed district that includes all of Cheatham County and the eastern half of Dickson County, Littleton drew only 4 percent of the vote in Cheatham County where grocery store owner Donnie Kemp got the most votes in a seven-candidate field. But Littleton picked up 54 percent of the votes in Dickson County to finish at 1,273. Former Cheatham County Commissioner Gary Allen Binkley was second at 1,189 and Kemp finished third at 1,154. Even though 1,800 more votes were cast in Cheatham County, the six candidates from that county divided up the votes while Littleton, the only GOP candidate from Dickson County, received over 800 votes more than her closest competitor in her home county to overcome her poor showing in Cheatham County. Littleton will face White Bluff Mayor Linda Hayes and independent Rick Wilson of Pleasant View in the Nov. 6 election to replace Phillip Johnson of Pegram in the 78^th Dsitrict seat.