District 95 winner Kevin Vaughan
With all votes counted in the special general election for state House District 95 (Collierville, Eads, Germantown), Republican nominee Kevin Vaughan has won a decisive victory over Democratic challenger Julie Byrd Ashworth and two independents, Robert Schutt and Jim Tomasik.
The precinct totals, which include early and absentee vote totals, are as follows:
Kevin Vaughan 3,099
Julie Byrd Ashworth 1,737
Robert Schutt 143
Jim Tomasik 25
Write-ins 3
TOTAL VOTES CAST: 5,007
When formally sworn in, Vaughan, a real estate developer with an engineering background, will become the third person to represent the east Shelby County district within the last year. Former longtime representative Curry Todd was defeated in the 2016 Republican primary by Mark Lovell, who won that year’s general election. The seat became open again in February when Lovell was forced to resign his position amid allegations of sexual harassment.
Vaughan, who finished ahead of six other Republicans to win the April special Republican primary for the vacated District 95 House seat ,l,is an established civil figure in Collierville.
Married with two children, he is both a licensed professional engineer and a prominent real estate developer; he is the towner of Township Development Services and township Realty Service.Vaughan was born in Bolivar and was a 1980 graduate of Bolivar High School. He graduated from the University of Memphis in 1984 with a B.S. in electrical Engineering. He was a Presidential Scholar at he U of M and has been named a Distinguished Alumnus of the University.
For the last 30 years, Vaughan has lived in Collierville, where he has a lengthy record of membership on civic boards and commissions, several of which he has headed up.
He is a member of the Collierville Chamber of Commerce Board of directors, a past president of the town’s Rotary Club and a former Paul Harris Fellow of Rotary.
At present, Vaughan is vice chairman of the Collierville School Board.
In the last couple of years, he has attracted considerable attention (and, in some circles, notoriety) for his proposal to develop a new retail shopping development on currently rural land in Collierville Plans for the development are apparently back on course after it was temporarily withdrawn due to adverse public reaction to Vaughan’s indiscreet statement in 2016 that he envisioned his development in the mode of Wolfchase Galleria, a mammoth mega-mall in Cordova.
The proposed development, which has not yet received preliminary zoning approval from the Collierville Board of Alderman but is under reconsideration, was the subject of a whispering campaign by Vaughan’s opponents during the recent GOP primary, and was the subject of similar criticism in the general election campaign from supporters of Democratic opponent Julie Byrd Ashworth, a lawyer..
Vaughan, a self-styled conservative, is pro-life and an adherent of 2nd amendment gun rights and expressed concern about Governor Haslam’s ultimately successful gas-tax proposal when the measure was being during the late legislative session.
