BEAUMONT, Texas — The votes are in and Jeff Branick will keep his long-held seat as Jefferson County judge.
Judge Branick faced off against Carolyn Guidry for the seat. The race for Jefferson County judge was one that political analysts said voters should and would keep an eye on.
During his campaign, Judge Branick explained that he was the better option for the seat because he has held it for more than a decade.
“I've been at the county for 16 years, and I've been the county judge for 12 years," Judge Branick said. "Have been working the entire time for what I thought was the best interest of the community, and hopefully, that proves to be true."
Judge Branick said he has had an amazing string of successes over the last 12 years as county judge.
"I’ve never increased the tax rate," Judge Branick said. "We’ve created more jobs in Jefferson County over the last 12 years than we had any time in the last hundred years."
In addition to creating more jobs, Judge Branick said Jefferson County has had more industrial infrastructure investment than ever in its history during his time as judge.
"We’ve got more money from federal and state grants and appropriation than we’ve ever received in our history," Judge Branick said. "We’ve gotten more grant funding for drainage work than we've ever received in our history."
The Jefferson County judge believes the relationships he has formed over the years will also continue to benefit Southeast Texans.
"I've got a great relationships with people at both the state and federal level that are decision makers and that relationships translated into real opportunities for Southeast Texas," Judge Branick said.
Now that he has been reelected, Judge Branick plans to make sure projects that started during his run are completed.
"I’ve been working for the last 15 years on the deepening of the Sabine Neches waterway," Judge Branick said. "We just started that project, and I want to see it completed."
Other projects Judge Branick plans to see completed are the beach restoration and storm surge projects.
"I personally went out after the BP oil spill and secured more money for Jefferson County than any other county in the United States," Judge Branick said. "I want to see our beach restoration project done, our storm surge suppression project completed and that won’t happen until the end of next year."
Judge Branick plans to continue to enhance the workforce.
"We need to look at making sure that we’re only keeping people out of the plants that are impaired, not somebody who went to a party a few weeks ago who may have inhaled a little bit of marijuana at the party and their hair follicle tests come out positive," Judge Branick said. "We need to make sure we open up the door for previously incarcerated individuals so that we can get them into worthwhile employment so they re-offend."
During his campaign, the Jefferson County judge said he would "accept whatever the good lord's verdict is" and states he was blessed to serve for as long as he already has.
"You know people have been very good to me, and I’ve been blessed to have the opportunity to be here for 12 years," Judge Branick said.
GET NEWS & WEATHER ALERTS | Download the 12News App to your mobile device
This is a developing story. We will update with more if and when we receive more confirmed information.
Also on 12NewsNow.com…