MOUNT VERNON – Knox County Commissioner Bill Pursel will have a Democratic challenger in the November general election, as Roger Munday seeks to unseat the incumbent Republican.
Pursel ran unopposed in the Republican primary on Tuesday and received 6,200 votes, according to unofficial results from the Knox County Board of Elections.
Munday also was unopposed in his Democratic primary race. He received 1,357 votes.
The two will face off on Nov. 8 for the commission seat for a four-year term. Early in-person voting and absentee voting will begin almost a month earlier, on Oct. 12.
“Thank you to those within the Republican Party for their strong show of confidence of my work in the Knox County Commissioner’s Office,” Pursel said in a statement sent to the Mount Vernon News.
Munday said he plans to use the consensus of opinion from county residents for governing.
“First and foremost, I want to be a voice of the people, and in this electronic age, please email me at VoteforMundayonTuesday@gmail.com to tell me what your concerns and needs are for Knox County and the country,” he said.
Pursel shared how he connects with the community.
“I feel a deep responsibility to the people of Knox County and have shown this by consistently visiting all 22 townships, all the villages and am a constant visitor to City Hall,” Pursel said. “I am very much aware of the needs and desires of our Knox County family, and I will continue to be a faithful servant to this community that I love.”
Munday repeated his belief that the county needs to end the party monopoly that the Republican Party has in Knox County.
“A single party monopoly is in the least short-sighted and will follow the party requests only and in the worst can be corrupt. Remember, absolute power corrupts absolutely,” he said.
Knox County had 41,630 registered voters as of election day. Of those voters, 7,291 were registered as Republican and 2,824 registered as Democratic. The majority of voters – 31,515 – were registered as nonpartisan.
