Alabama’s 2nd Congressional District, which includes Covington County reelected Martha Roby to a fourth term in the U.S. House of Representatives Tuesday.

When The Star-News went to press, Roby had received 46.17 percent of the 215,967 votes cast in the district, while Democratic challenger Nathan Mathis had 43.33 percent. An additional 10.51 percent of the votes cast were write-ins.

Covington County gave Roby 9,499 votes (63 percent), while 3,750 voted for Mathis. There were 1,804 write-in votes cast locally in the race.

Voting machines tally the write-in ballots, but the ballots are only tallied by specific vote if enough are cast to potentially change the outcome.

Roby drew the ire of many Republicans a month ago when she announced she would not vote for Trump after video surfaced of the Republican nominee making lewd comments in 2005 about grabbing women.

Tuesday night, Roby expressed gratitude for the opportunity to continue her service, and vowed to keep fighting on the issues that matter to the 2nd District.

“I’m grateful for the opportunity to continue serving in Congress and carry on our work on some important priorities.

“Over the last six years, I have fought hard on behalf of this district. I’ve fought on behalf of veterans to expose corruption at the VA and improve care. I’ve fought on behalf of farmers to deliver more sustainable agriculture policy. I’ve even fought my own party leadership when it came to cuts that threatened Maxwell Air Force Base and Fort Rucker.

“There’s a lot more fight where that came from, and I’m eager to get back to work.”

The results of the presidential election were not known when Roby issued a statement, but she vowed to keep her focus on the issues that matter to Alabamians, whatever the outcome.

“One takeaway from this election I want to press with Republican leadership is how so many working people feel marginalized in a country where the outcomes seem predetermined and the deck is stacked against them. Whether it is trade or immigration or tax policy, we need to be communicating how our plans on the issues work to benefit the American worker. We talk a lot about how conservative policies will help the person that owns the factory, but we need to spend more time explaining how they help the men and women working inside it.

“I’m eager to carry that message back to Washington.”