Shelly Luther beats Tiffany Drake for Texas House District 62 seat

DENISON, Texas =(KXII) - Shelly Luther (R) defeated Tiffany Drake (D) for the Texas House District 62 seat, which represents Grayson, Fannin, Delta and Franklin Counties.

"There's a lot of issues going on in Austin that people care about, and they wanted to get a different candidate in there," Luther said. "The people spoke and I'm super excited."

Luther defeated incumbent Reggie Smith in the March Republican Primary. This was the third time she ran for a seat in North Texas.

Luther made national headlines when she was arrested during the pandemic for refusing to follow Texas Governor Greg Abbott's shutdown order.

She is also a proponent of school vouchers, but says there's a way for vouchers and a well-funded public school system to coexist.

"For me, school vouchers and public school funding are two different things," she said. "Even if we do pass school vouchers, that doesn't mean we can't make sure that rural schools have the money they need to be successful too."