The party took all of the races in the County General Election for the first time in history.

“On the morning after the elections, its clear that several long-term, well experienced public servants are out of a job,” Murfreesboro resident Thom Christy said. “We thank them for their years of dedication and faithful presence in their offices and in our midst; they will be missed.”

Full results here.

The biggest shocker of the night was Robert Arnold’s defeat of veteran Sheriff Truman Jones.

Arnold won with 51.8 percent of the vote, 2,729 votes over Jones, who has served a sheriff since the mid-80s.

Not only did the Republicans pull off the sheriff’s race, but the party also unseated incumbents in the circuit court clerk and register of deeds races. Republican Lisa Duke-Crowell bested her Democratic challenger, Lisa Harrell, 61 percent to 39 percent to replace retiring County Clerk Georgia Lynch.

The big democratic losses could be attributed to sheer numbers of voters.

Although hard numbers weren’t available Friday, it seems like simply more Republicans turned out to vote than Democrats.

In the governor’s race, more than 23,000 people voted in the Republican primary. On the democratic side, only 6,943 cast ballots.

Similar numbers can be seen in the U.S. House and State House and Senate primaries.

The county commission will have seven new faces when the 21-seat board meets in September.

Four sitting county commissioners lost their races – Ron Williams in the 8th district, Anthony Johnson in the 10th district, Rick Hall in the 12th district and Jim Daniel in the 21st district.

Daniel’s loss to Chanto Sourinho, a retired guidance counselor from Rutherford County Schools, is historic since it puts the first Laotian on the commission.

Williams lost in a tight four-way race to Tiffany Jones, who walked away with nearly 37 percent of the vote. Williams garnered 31 percent. Challengers Billy Pitmon and Lisa Toombs received 24 percent and 8 percent respectively.

Johnson lost handily to Brad Turner in a three-way race for the Smyrna district.

Voters gave Turner 48 percent of the vote. Tony Campbell garnered 33 percent and incumbent Johnson only received 19 percent.

In District 12, Hall, a Smyrna Police Officer, lost by 12 votes to challenger Robert Stevens.

The county commission had three seats up for grabs.

In District 14, Charles Baum won his bid to replace John Rodgers with 46 percent of the vote, beating out Jacoby O’Gwynn and Jerry Sartain.

Matthew Young will replace Bob Bullen in District 16. Young beat challenger Avent Lane 54 percent to 45 percent.

National and State Primaries

Close races marked the National and State Primaries on the ballot. In fact a few were still up in the air at press time Friday.

In the closest race of the evening, Diane Black held a marginal lead over challengers Lou Ann Zelenik and Jim Tracy in the Republican race to replace Bart Gordon in the U.S. House of Representatives 6th District.

The race is so nail-biting close only 566 votes separate the three candidates with more than 700 military ballots still uncounted in Putnam and Overton counties.

In Rutherford County, Tracy received the most votes with 43 percent of the vote, Zelenik garnered 39 percent and Black came in with 11 percent.

In the same race on the Democratic side, 109 votes separate Brett Carter and Ben Leming with the about 600 military ballots uncounted in the party primary.

Rutherford County native Leming won the county easily with 48 percent of the vote over Carter’s 21 percent.

Party primaries for the State House of Representatives weren’t as close with Jenny Hunt picking up the Democratic nomination and Pat Marsh the Republican nomination for the 62nd district, which include Eagleville.

Bill Shacklett easily won the Democratic nomination for the 34th district with 60 percent of the won. He will face off in November against Rick Womick to replace Donna Rowland.