Dave Belton won the State House District 112 seat, defeating Patsy Harris Tuesday night.

Belton had 71.73% of the votes (12,217) to Harris’ 28.27 % (4,914) in Morgan and Newton Counties. In Newton County, Belton topped Harris 7,781-3,067.

“We just had a great team,” Belton said. “They did a lot of work for us on the grass roots level both in Newton and Morgan counties. I’m very humbled by the work they did. My commitment now is to work just as hard for Newton and Morgan as Doug Holt did.”

It was Belton’s third race of the 2014 election season, after meeting Newton County resident Aaron Brooks in the primary, and then again going against Brooks in a runoff.

Tuesday, he could breathe a little easier, however.

“When the early voting came in, I was ahead 3-1 in both Newton and Morgan and it kind of stayed that way,” Belton said. “Every vote that came in was just about 3-1, it seemed like since 7:30 at night.”

Belton said he had a good feeling when he saw voter turnout was high in his Republican heavy district, that he stood a good shot of winning.

“Patsy ran a principled and compassionate race,” Belton said. “I admire the turnout she and her campaign manager Olie Rivers were able to achieve. I look forward to sitting down with them and other leaders to talk about things we can agree on to make our counties even better.”

Belton will get to work in the state capitol, focusing on education and industrial growth.

“I want good growth for Newton and Morgan, and good quality jobs,” Belton said. “I think education is the key and I’m going to do as much as I can to piggy back what is going on at Baxter to get more of that kind of high tech quality jobs for our people.”