First, I want to thank God.

This campaign has had a lot of long days and late nights, and through all of it, God has carried me, He has carried my family, and He has carried the people who have stood beside us.

From the beginning, I prayed that His will would be done. And I’m incredibly thankful for where He’s brought us.

I also want to thank my family, because when you run for office, your name may be on the sign, but your whole family runs with you. They gave up time. They lost sleep. They burned vacation days. They rearranged their lives around this campaign.

And nobody sacrificed more than my wife, Maryanne.

During this campaign, she lost her grandmother, her aunt, and her uncle.

There were days when her family was hurting and politics was the last thing that mattered to either of us. But through everything she went through, she stood beside me.

And to the Republicans of District 31, thank you.

Whether you are from Bledsoe, Rhea, Sequatchie, or Van Buren County, I am incredibly grateful for the trust you’ve placed in me.

And I understand that with that trust comes a responsibility.

We had a Republican primary. People supported different candidates. That’s part of the process.

But the primary is behind us now.

We’re Republicans. We’re neighbors. And we’ve got work to do, together.

We have constitutional values and freedoms worth defending. We have innocent life worth protecting. And we have rural communities that need somebody willing to stand up and fight for them. We need to get out and vote in November.

I’ve spent this campaign traveling across District 31 and listening.

And I’ve heard a lot.

I’ve heard about roads, schools, jobs, healthcare, agriculture, and the challenges facing our small communities.

And I’m not going to stand here and tell you that because I won a primary, I suddenly have every answer.

I don’t.

We’ve got a lot of work ahead of us.

But I know why I want to do that work.

I think about twenty years from now.

I think about my future children entering the workforce, and I want them to have the choice to stay here.

I want them to know their aunts and uncles, just like I did. And right now, that’s not possible with the job opportunities available.

I want the next generation to know what it means to grow up in rural Tennessee.

Eating at a family-owned restaurant where you know the people behind the counter.

Making a little money throwing square bales on a hot summer day or working in the chicken houses down the road.

And when somebody in the community loses a loved one, you don’t have to be asked, you take some food over and check on the family, because they would do the same for you, and you grew up with them. That’s what makes us who we are.

And I want to make sure we don’t lose it.

We need growth. We need good jobs. We need opportunity.

But growth isn’t enough if our own children have to leave to find a future.

Success to me is twenty years from now seeing our communities stronger, seeing our children able to stay here, seeing families that have called this place home for generations still here, being active in our churches, and still taking care of their neighbors.

On primary night, after we knew the results, my mom walked up to me with tears in her eyes. She hugged me and said:

“We did it.”

I’ve thought about those words a lot since then.

Because she didn’t say, “You did it.”

She said, “We did it.”

And that’s exactly how I look at this.

This wasn’t my victory. It belongs to every person who prayed for us, volunteered, talked to their neighbors, supported this campaign, and ultimately put their trust in me.

Now it’s my responsibility to prove that trust was well placed.

So, thank you.

Thank you for believing in me. Thank you for believing in what we’re trying to accomplish. And thank you for giving me the opportunity to fight for the people of District 31.

The primary is behind us.

Now let’s come together, get to work, and make sure the next generation gets to inherit a rural Tennessee every bit as special as the one we were blessed to inherit. I’m Andy Swafford the Republican Nominee for District 31 State Representative, and I once again am asking for your trust. Visit your neighbors, call your friends, and get out to vote on November 3^rd.

God bless you, God bless District 31, and God bless Tennessee. – Andy