Dave Buschur dominates, wins race against Don Holtvoight

CELINA - Republican Dave Buschur soundly bested Democrat Don Holtvoigt on election night for a Mercer County commissioner seat.

Buschur took 86.15% or 15,095 votes to Holtvoigt's 13.85% or 2,426 votes, unofficial final results show.

Buschur, 39, said his background as a business owner makes him a qualified contender for the commissioner's seat.

Over his 17-year career, the Republican said he's grown the family business from one truck to 56 trucks, 200 trailers and 65 full-time employees. Buschur said he hopes his business-minded mentality will appeal to voters.

"I manage a company with 65 employees, so I'm good at running a budget," he said. "I'd like to think my business experience and a desire to do the job will help me grow and maybe make the county an even better place to live."

The Maria Stein resident said he was inspired to run for office by his grandfather, who was a township trustee and served on the rural electric co-op board in Darke County for nearly 40 years each.

"I've seen that growing up and it was something I've always been interested in," he said. "I've gotten to the point in my life where my business has grown and I've hired the right people… to do a lot of the jobs that (have) freed me up to focus some of my energy elsewhere."

Buschur said he believes the housing shortage in Mercer County needs to be addressed.

"If you go almost anywhere in the county there is a housing shortage," he said. "We are having strong population growth, stronger than most rural counties and I think stronger than any rural county in the state. So we do need to figure out housing, because if we don't have housing we don't have extra people that can relocate to this area and work at the many employers that are looking for extra people."

Buschur said he would also seek to continue improving Grand Lake's water quality.

See all the local election results here.