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After counting votes until after 11 p.m. Saturday, the Republican Party of Chesapeake announced N. Baxter Ennis as the winner of a firehouse primary. Ennis will run as the Republican nominee for the House of Delegates District 89 race.

Ennis beat out Chesapeake City Council member Don Carey III and political newcomer Jason Woolridge from Suffolk.

District 89 includes Chesapeake and parts of Suffolk. Ennis will run against Democrat nominee Karen Lynette Jenkins, a Suffolk school board member.

Im just so honored to get the chance to be the Republican nominee for the House District 89, and Im just really looking forward to a great campaign, Ennis told The Pilot. I look forward to the opportunity to go to Richmond if Im so lucky as to win in November and help Governor Youngkin with his conservative agenda.

Ennis, 70, described himself as a fiscal conservative and wants to make law enforcement and first responders his priorities. He said he values education and wants students to be prepared for college, a technical career or a career in the military.

The firehouse primary used rank choice voting to select the Republican nominee, which means voters ranked the candidates against one another. Votes are counted until one candidate gets 51%. If a candidate doesnt have 51% of first choice votes, the candidate with the least votes is eliminated, and second choice votes are redistributed to the remaining candidates.

Woolridge was eliminated after the first round with 25.7% of the votes against Careys 30.8% and Ennis 43.5%. Results from the first round were posted at 10:37 p.m. Saturday on the Republican Party of Chesapeake Facebook page. In the second and final round, Ennis had 57.7% of the votes and Carey had 42.3%. Results from the second round were posted at 11:12 p.m.

Carey and Woolridge both agreed with the election results Sunday.

We ran a campaign and came up short against Ennis, Carey said.

Woolridge said he won the majority of the votes in Suffolk, but his campaign couldnt get through the wall of money in Chesapeake.

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Carey raised $95,000 in donations as of March 31, according to campaign finance data from the Virginia Public Access Project. Ennis raised $42,466 as of March 31 and Woolridge raised $10,018.

Im pretty proud of our effort, Woolridge said. I got all 40 plus volunteers that were on my crew door knocking, phone banking and trying to get the word out about my campaign for the delegate. We did a really good job considering what we were up against.

Cianna Morales, 757-957-1304, cianna.morales@virginiamedia.com

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Baxter Ennis wins Republican nomination for House District 89 race in firehouse primary - Yahoo News