David Kustoff received nearly 34 percent of the votes Thursday to win the Republican primary for the 8th Congressional district. Kustoff, a local attorney, bested 12 opponents with 8,487 of 24,971 total votes.
Mayor Mark Luttrell and Brian Kelsey received 6,624 and 4,160 votes, respectively. George Flinn, a local radiologist, got 3,981 votes and Shelby County
Register of Deeds Tom Leatherwood received 1,313. No other Republican candidate received more than 200 votes.
Kustoff, 49, is expected to win the Nov. 8 general election in the predominantly Republican 8th district.
“I am a lifelong conservative who was born and raised in West Tennessee,” he said. “Having served as our United States Attorney, I know just how important it is we work together to keep our community safe, secure and prosperous.
The first priority of our government is our nation’s security. We must take the fight to ISIS, Al Qaeda, and other terrorist groups, and destroy them. As the United States Attorney for the Western District of Tennessee under President Bush, I set my sights on cleaning up government and public corruption, and fighting violent crime and drugs.
I oversaw the majority of the Tennessee Waltz trials that sent Sen. John Ford and many other politicians to federal prison. I also advocated for the death penalty and sent criminals back home to their country of origin.
We must secure the border and enforce the laws already on the books. Period. As United States Attorney I enforced the laws and sent criminals back to their country of origin. President Obama’s immigration executive orders are unconstitutional and must be reversed. Illegal immigration is also a national security issue. A secure country must have secure borders. Our fight against ISIS and other terrorists must include securing the border.
We’ve taken the best healthcare system in the world and made it too convoluted and expensive. We need more choice in our health care system, including purchasing insurance across state lines.”
