2 out of 3 candidates in Tennessee race die before election — including the winner

(Image credit: Logan Mock-Bunting/Getty Images)

last updated 3 March 2016

The Republican race for property assessor in Unicoi County, Tennessee, took a sad turn on Tuesday, when the winner died before all the votes were counted. That wasn't the first tragedy to befall the contest, though — another candidate died last month of cancer.

Jim Buchanan, the chairman of the county's Republican party, told The Associated Press that the winner, Margaret Seward, is believed to have died from a massive heart attack, and leaves behind a husband and three children. In February, during early voting, the interim assessor of property, Wayne Peterson, died of cancer. Buchanan said the local GOP will determine who will make it to the ballot for the August general election. The only remaining candidate still alive, Alan "Rocky" McInturrff, received 34 percent of the vote, compared to Seward's 48 percent and Peterson's 17 percent.

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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

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