Jonathan Perry was able to win the District 26 Senate race thanks to the western part of Vermilion Parish.

In the parish, Perry, a republican from Kaplan, had 6,902 votes in the parish, while Nathan Granger, a democrat from Erath, had 6,096 votes.

A total of 35 percent of Vermilion Parish voters went to the poll, while 25 percent of the entire district (consisting of four parishes) turned out.

Overall, Perry had 10,179 votes to Granger’s 9,491 votes.

It would be Vermilion Parish that did Perry well.

Perry won 21 out of 22 precincts, located west of Hwy. 167, which set him apart from Granger.

Perry had a total of 3,172 votes out west while Granger had 1,022.

Starting way west in Gueydan, Perry won the three precincts 358 to 214.

He easily took Kaplan, which was no surprise.

However, where Perry really did well is in the rural areas of west of Hwy. 167.

In Indian Bayou, he won 203 to 60.

Perry, an attorney, can thank the Forked Island and Meaux for helping him get elected.

In the two Forked Island precincts, Perry had 533 votes to Granger’s 110.

In the Meaux, North Vermilion area, Perry had 631 votes and Granger had 282.

Then there was Abbeville.

Both candidates pulled in just about the same amount of votes.

Granger had 1,343 votes while Perry had 1,295.

Granger dominated Erath, Delcambre and Henry precincts 1,654 votes to 642.

Perry is expected to sworn in at the end of the week or next week.

He will take over former state senator Nick Gautreaux’s seat for 10 months. Another senate election for District 26 will have to be held in October for the four year term.

Now that Perry is state senator, what will happen to his representative seat?

Another election will have to be held, probably in April. Registrar of Voters Mike Bertrand said the state House of Representative, as of Monday, had not set a date for the election. He is guessing it will be sometime in April. The winner will fill out Perry’s term for the remaining six months and another representative election will be held in October.

The contest was closely watched because the state Senate is currently split, with 19 Republicans and 19 Democrats. After a number of party switches, Republicans recently took control of the state House.

A Louisiana elections official said the state Senate results still must be certified and can be contested until Feb. 28.