Hurd beats Voss in 69th primary
By Kevin O’Brien
With 57 percent of the ballots cast in her favor, Rep. Karen Hurd defeated former Abbotsford mayor Lori Voss in Tuesday’s Republican primary for the newly redrawn 69th Assembly District. Hurd earned a total of 3,892 votes, compared to 2,909 for Voss. As a result of Tuesday’s election, Hurd will face Democrat Roger Halls of Stanley in the Nov. 5 general election. The 69th is currently represented by Rep. Donna Rozar (R-Marshfield), but she was
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Karen Hurd 69th
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drawn out of the district’s new boundaries after a redistricting bill was signed into law earlier this year. Rozar ran in Tuesday’s Republican primary in the neighboring 86th Assembly District, but lost to incumbent Rep. John Spiros, also of Marshfield.
Prior to Tuesday’s primary, Hurd was elected in 2022 to represent the 68th Assembly District, but she decided to move from Fall Creek in Chippewa County to the town of Withee in Clark County so that she could run in the open 69th Assembly District. Her current two-year term as the 68th’s representative will end at the start of 2025, when she begins her first term in the 69th.
Voss, who previously served as Abbotsford’s mayor and was also a member of the city council, performed well in the Abbotsford- Colby area, but it wasn’t enough to overcome Hurd’s lead in Medford and greater Clark County.
Clark County, which is now completely contained within the boundaries of the 69th, went for Hurd over Voss, 2,442 to 1,451, with Hurd winning a majority of the vote in all but six of the county’s 50 municipalities. Besides earning the most votes in the cities of Abbotsford and Colby, Voss won majorities in the nearby towns of Colby, Unity, Green Grove and Mayville.
Voss also had a strong showing in rural Marathon County, winning majorities in the towns of Bern, Brighton, Frankfort, Halsey, Holton, Hull, Johnson, and Rietbrock, and in the village of Athens.
However, Hurd won the Taylor County portion of the district, 757 to 641. Besides beating Voss in Medford, 259 to 145, and in Stetsonville, 45 to 24, Hurd won majorities in the towns of Deer Creek and Goodrich.
