Noah Covington won the District 1 county commission seat Tuesday night by outpolling incumbent Joe Kendrick by a 356-126 margin in a runoff election.

Covington, a Republican, said he was surprised by his margin of victory.

“I thought it was going to be pretty close,” he said. “I’m very humbled with the results and look forward to serving the people of Bryan County. I also appreciate everything every body has done for me helping get people out to the polls.”

Kendrick, a Democrat, could not be reached for comment Tuesday night.

The runoff became necessary after neither Covington, Kendrick nor former District 1 commissioner Rufus “Ed” Bacon received more than 50 percent of the vote in the general election in November.

Covington garnered 48 percent of votes for the seat in November while Kendrick netted 28 percent and Bacon received 24 percent of the votes.

Covington, a Bryan County native who works for Pembroke Telephone, said his first order of business will be to “get in there and get my feet wet.”

“I want to get a full understanding of what’s going on with all projects in the works and very quickly get up to speed to make sure the folks in District 1 and the people of BryanCounty as a whole are well represented,” he said.

Only 12.37 percent of the district’s 3,913 registered voters cast ballots in the runoff election, officials said.