Freeport Republican Jay Finegan will face Democratic Rep. Melanie Sachs in the Nov. 8 general election contest for House District 102 after the former defeated Gina LeDuc-Kuntz in Tuesday’s Republican primary, according to unofficial results.

Finegan, a retired financial adviser, earned 198 votes to LeDuc-Kuntz’s 120. The new House District 102, drawn last fall as part of the state’s redistricting process, includes all of Freeport, according to documents from the state legislature.

“I’ve got a lot of respect for my opponent,” Finegan said Wednesday. “We both worked really hard on this, hitting hundreds of houses around the district, talking to voters. We were both disappointed with the low turnout.”

Fewer than a quarter of Freeport’s 1,466 registered Republicans voted in the primary, according to data from the state’s Bureau of Corporations, Elections and Commissions.

Sachs, who currently represents Freeport and part of Pownal as the incumbent for House District 48, won her uncontested Democratic primary with 697 votes, according to results provided by Freeport Town Clerk Christine Wolfe.  As of June 10, 3,644 Democrats were registered to vote in Freeport.

Finegan, who lost to Sachs by a two-to-one margin in their 2020 fight to represent House District 48, said Freeport’s Democratic tilt will be a difficult obstacle to overcome in November. Yet he argued the nation’s heated political climate and flagging economy could persuade voters to back a new representative.

“I plan to knock on every door in the district,” Finegan said. “I’m really doing this so that we leave a better world and state and country for the next generation.”

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