Hurd easily wins new 69th Assembly seat

By Kevin O’Brien

Rep. Karen Hurd successfully completed her transition into the 69th Assembly District on Tuesday, easily beating her two opponents to take what had become an empty seat after the district’s were redrawn earlier this year. Hurd, a Republican who has been representing the 68th Assembly District to the west, defeated both Democrat Roger Halls of Stanley and independent candidate Joshua Kelley of Greenwood to become the first representative of the newly reconfigured 69th, which includes all of Clark County, the city of Medford in Taylor County and the village of Athens in Marathon County. Districtwide, she won about 72 percent of the ballots cast in Tuesday’s election.

With all precincts reporting their results, Hurd earned 19,534 votes, compared to 6,565 for Halls and 1,056 for Kelley. In August, Hurd fended off a challenge from former Abbotsford mayor Lori Voss, who ran against iher n the Republican primary.

Prior to running for the 69th Assembly seat, Hurd had to move from Fall Creek in Chippewa County to the town of Withee in Clark County in order to be an eligible candidate. She was first elected to the Assembly in 2022 and will finish off her current term in the 68th District until the end of this year.

Karen Hurd