Mark Schauer's state senate seat -- vacant for about a year now -- has now been filled with Republican Mike Nofs.

Nofs won the special election by a large margin Tuesday against Democrat Martin Griffin.

Mike Nofs spent more money than Martin Griffin, almost $300,000 during the campaign to Griffin's $30,000 and his hard work has paid off. Nofs beat Griffin for the 19th district senate seat by almost as big a margin.

"I think we worked really hard, we took it seriously," Mike Nofs said Tuesday at his campaign party. "We tried to reach out to people and listen to them. We hit over 100,000 doors."

Nofs had the resources and he also had the support. Senate Republicans joined the celebration at Nofs campaign party in Marshall Tuesday. Majority Leader Mike Bishop said he welcomes one more republican vote -- the majority now stands at 22.

"Mike Nofs addition to the senate puts us into a good position where we can fight off the liberal agenda," Bishop said.

Marty Griffin said he was disappointed, but not surprised considering by how much they were outspent by and the low democratic turnout for a special election.

"I'm disappointed, but it's not all unexpected when you saw what was happening nationally," Griffin said Tuesday at his campaign party. "We had a strategy of identifying voters and it worked to some extent. It is what it is."

Nofs doesn't have much time in office, so he says he's going to hit the ground running.

"First thing is jobs, jobs, jobs," he said.

Nofs says the first thing he will do Wednesday morning is gather up all his campaign signs and keep them, because he has to run for this seat again in one year.