ST. CLAIRSVILLE — Belmont County will go into 2021 with a new auditor and recorder.

Republicans Cindi Henry and Jason Garczyk were victorious Tuesday, when voters elected GOP candidates in every contested race in the county. Henry will become auditor, while Garczyk will be the recorder.

Garczyk got 19,785 votes to Democrat contender Cory DelGuzzo’s 11,544 votes in the contest for the seat of retiring Recorder Mary Catherine Nixon, who has held the post for 24 years.

Henry unseated incumbent Auditor Anthony Rocchio with 17,573 votes to his 13,748 votes, both according to unofficial vote totals released by the Belmont County Board of Elections.

Henry said she will put her experience to work to help guide the county through the financial times ahead.

“I’m thrilled to death,” she said. “I can’t wait to represent the county taxpayers and do my very best to be one of their very best auditors. … The campaign was very, very good, I appreciated my opponent and the fact that it was a clean campaign, very respectful, very professional. A good guy.”

Henry commended staff at the auditor’s office and said their work would be invaluable.

“Currently they have a fine staff in place, I see no reason to change what’s going on there at this time,” she said. “The biggest thing right now … is the COVID that we’ve got, and the loss of the sales tax. That’s very concerning to me because I know the county relies heavily on that to operate their budget. That’ll be my first priority when I take office, to see we still stay stable.”

Garczyk also was pleased with the results.

“I feel very grateful and appreciative of the people of Belmont County for placing their trust in me. I’m looking forward to serving the people of Belmont County,” Garczyk said, adding this was his first political campaign. “It went very well. I met a lot of people — a little difficult with the (COVID-19) pandemic going on. … I feel very proud of the campaign that I ran. … I had a lot of help with the campaign.

“The last time a Republican was elected to this seat was 1924,” Garczyk said. “I’m the first Republican to be elected in 96 years.”

Garczyk said he looks forward to dedicating himself as a full-time recorder and modernizing the office as its budget allows.

“We’ve been very fortunate in Belmont County that all of our past recorders have been dedicated to the office,” he said. “There’s a great staff there. I want to continue that legacy and make sure that Belmont County’s land documents continue to be processed and recorded accurately and efficiently.”