Johnson, McClain win races to replace Clemons, Perry

Stone House Neighborhood Grill in Newberry erupted in cheers around 8:15 p.m. on election night as House District 22 candidate Chad Johnson and a room full of supporters watched the winning numbers flash across the television screen.

Johnson, a Levy County resident and former county commissioner, claimed more than 56% of votes to defeat Democrat David Arreola, who ended the night with more than 43%.

Senate District 9 also saw a win for the Republican Party with Stan McClain winning 63.3% against Democrat Sylvain Dore, who claimed 43.1%.

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"There's so many different emotions," Johnson told Mainstreet in an interview. "You're excited because you won the victory, but then the sudden realization that you have a major job as a representative and all the workload and the responsibility that comes with that. It's got weight."

After stepping out of politics for 10 years, Johnson was endorsed by and will replace term-limited Rep. Chuck Clemons, R-Newberry. During his tenure, Clemons filed the bill that formed the GRU Authority and passed legislation to place a referendum on the ballot that changed elections for the Alachua County Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) to single-member districts.

Fellow term-limited Alachua County delegation member Rep. Keith Perry, R-Gainesville, who McClain will replace, also supported the 2022 referendum .

As of 2 p.m. Tuesday afternoon, Arreola, a former Gainesville city commissioner, posted in a video on Instagram encouraged that more Democrats had voted than Republicans "in a district that was drawn by Republicans, for Republicans."

"We always knew this was going to be a close race, we always had confidence that we could go into their trap, take their trap and own their trap," he said. Arreola has not made a statement after election returns came in Tuesday night.

Johnson recognized his opponent for entering the political arena in spite of the loss.

"I applaud him for putting his name in the hat and running a good race," he said. "You've always got to appreciate somebody that's willing to put themselves out there, expose themselves. Congratulations today for making the sacrifice to run."

The first of his family to graduate from college, Johnson credited prayer and his wife Angela's support through the campaign for his win. The livestock auctioneer will head to St. Cloud and Alabama this week to run auctions in his cowboy hat, before putting on a suit and setting up his desk in Tallahassee.

"I look forward to having a picture of my dad and my grandfather in that office," Johnson said. "[I'm] a freshman, and so [I'm] not going to have political power. So it'll be the small, sentimental stuff that I'll focus on the first day, seeing those pictures in there of who I am, where I come from, so that I can always stay grounded...we're super excited to represent the people of District 22, and very grateful for the folks that voted for us and put their confidence in us to represent them."