Georgetown — Steve Smyk said he won his race the old-fashioned way. Asked what it took to beat Marie Mayor, he said: “Do you see that man’s shoes over there? What we did was we walked. We met the people, and we talked to them,” he said.

Republicans set up their local election result headquarters at the Sussex County Association of Realtors  office near Georgetown.

Smyk, 46, is a retired state trooper. He said his margin of victory wasn’t large. He polled 5,689  or 53.2  percent of the vote, while his opponent, Democrat Marie Mayor, had 5,153 votes or 46.8 percent.

The 20th Representitive District is new, created by redistricting following the 2010 U.S. Census. Moved from New Castle County, the new district takes in Lewes, Harbeson and Milton.

Smyk in an earlier interview that despite party affiliations, people in his district have more in common than differences.

“You might be Democrat, and I might be Republican, and we might lean one way or another, but mostly, as Sussex Countians, we are conservative, and we probably see more eye-to-eye than not,” he said.

Smyk was unopposed in the September primary and ran a relatively quiet campaign, including declining to answer questions posed to both Smyk and Mayor by the Cape Gazette.

Although basking in his win, Smyk exhibited something rarely seen in a politician – sincere empathy for his opponent's loss.

“There are a lot of other people who aren’t so very happy tonight, and I’m concerned about them. I’m sorry for her loss, my heart goes out to her, and I hope she continues any efforts she has for public service,” he said.

Mayor, in her concession speech at Irish Eyes in Lewes, didn’t sound like she planned to quit trying to make a difference in the community.

“We have a wonderful team of people. We have wonderful ideas for our home. We have a vision of how we want to protect our communities and protect our coastlines and our aquifers that give us our drinking water. We have a brighter future. We know that vision. We need to work hard to get there,” she said.