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A Whitehouse native and Smith County judge will be the next leader to represent East Texas in Congress.

Nathaniel Moran got the nod to replace longtime Rep. Louie Gohmert in his 1st Congressional District seat, which represents Tyler and Longview and south to Nacogdoches and Lufkin. 

Moran faced Democratic challenger Jrmar Jefferson, who received 21.9% of the votes compared to Moran’s strong lead of 78.1%, according to unofficial results. 

“It’s very humbling,” Moran said of winning the race on Tuesday night, as he gathered with supporters at Rick’s on the Square in downtown Tyler. “When I think back to being just a young child, almost 2 years old, when my parents moved here in 1976, living in a little bitty mobile home trailer in the middle of southern Smith County, to where things are today, it’s humbling to know that the folks in Congressional District 1 — 17 counties wide — have asked me to go to Congress and fight for them, and I plan to fight for them strongly come Jan. 3.”

Moran said he plans to go to work immediately. 

“I’m ready to dig in, even this week,” Moran said, noting he plans to focus on some major issues East Texans have brought to his attention such as securing the border, stopping the recession, inflation and excessive government spending and other issues he believes need major attention.

Other areas Moran said he plans to focus on include health care initiatives for veterans, support of law enforcement, shrinking the U.S. Department of Education and more.

Moran has served as the county judge for the last six years and said he hopes his time serving the community in this capacity has shown he is a strategic thinker and planner, which can be useful at the federal level.

Moran said in a previous interview that change takes time.

“The federal government is not a speedboat that can reverse course overnight; It’s more of a big barge,” he said. “Our founders set us up to be a government of incrementalism, and so what we have to start doing is planning more long term and turning that big barge as much as possible as quickly as possible, but realizing that sometimes it takes a long time to do that.”

Jefferson, of Texarkana, had spent a lot of time campaigning and was looking forward to the possibility of representing East Texas in Congress. He hoped to be elected and use his position to help others.

“I understand that people want power; I just want people to have a better life. I don’t want power – I just want the ability to lead people in the right direction, to help people,” he previously said.

Supporters of each candidate and party gathered together at local watch parties. Republicans came together at Rick’s on the Square in downtown Tyler while Democratic supporters joined at Caribbean Kitchen.

Gohmert made the decision to leave Congress to challenge Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton in the March primary. He came up last in a four-way race for the Republican nomination, shutting the 17-year congressman out of the May runoff and ensuring this would be his last year to serve as the District 1 representative in Congress. He took office in 2005.

Gohmert previously told the Morning Telegraph he wasn’t sure what was next for him other than “trying to preserve things, really freedom, for the next generation, because I don’t believe it’s been properly preserved so far,” he said.

He believes freedom is in “grave danger” and feels the country has a “tough road ahead.”

“We have a chance to get back on track, we’re gonna have to do it in a hurry,” Gohmert said in March. “I hope and pray that we will have people elected in November that will be able to lead us in that direction.”