In the 17th District State Senate race where many people believed the biggest loss was that both men could not win, Republican John Carey edged Mike Shoemaker.

Carey won every county except Pike and Ross receiving 47,981 votes (53.8 percent) of the total votes. Shoemaker had 41,093 votes (46.1 percent).

In Lawrence County, Carey received 4,797 votes (63.4 percent). Shoemaker received 2,768 votes.

"It is really humbling. In a district with 10 counties and 345,000 people there is no way individually I could win," Carey said. "So many people worked hard and made sacrifices to make this possible."

"I will do everything I can in Columbus to uphold that trust."

Carey said he believes his grass-roots campaign and having served as a state representative basically made the difference.

"I believe everything always works out for the best," he said. "I ran a good campaign and was honest with the people. I was willing to wait and see how the people voted and accept it."

Because he has already worked with many of the State Senators, Carey said he believes he can get right to work.

"We should be able to jump in there with both feet and begin working for the district and all of Ohio."

Carey said he will continue to host open door meetings and listen to the people about the problems that most affect them.

"We need to work on education, jobs and prescription medicines," he said. "We have had some successes and we need to build on those."

He said he did not look at the victory as a personal accomplishment but more as a testament to what he represents, the work he has done and the message of what he hopes to accomplish.

Shoemaker was clearly disappointed with not being able to represent the district for which has worked hard.

"It is pretty obvious when swimming upstream in a 58 percent Republican District carved out specifically to beat me, and up against an opponent that spent $1.5 million, that it is pretty tough to win," he said.

"Six months from now there is going to be reckoning on the decisions made," he said. "Mike Shoemaker has never been afraid to make the tough decisions."