A race that was in dead heat had the state sweating Tuesday, until former Nashville Mayor, Phil Bredesen, was announced to be Tennessee’s next governor.

Three percentage points, 42,300 votes, determined Bredesen as governor over former Congressman Van Hilleary.

Approximately 10 p.m. Tuesday night, Hilleary stood in front of a large group with his wife by his side and conceded his run for governor.

“Honor represents hopes and dreams, and thank you for the opportunity,” Hilleary said.

“Thank you for the opportunity,” Hilleary said, “ We didn’t win but succeeded and now we must do our part as citizens to move the state ahead.”

Hilleary also said he felt his campaign made its point about taxes. He said the people of Tennessee didn’t want an income tax and he felt his campaign got that off the table.

At approximately 10:30 p.m. Tuesday night, Bredesen stood in front of hundreds and proudly accepted his position as the elected governor.

“The best has yet to come,” former Governor Ned Ray McWheter said as he introduced Bredesen as the next governor.

“Are you ready to get this state moving,” Bredesen said as the crowd went wild, “Tennessee is a big tent with enormous opportunity, not Democratic opportunity, not Republican opportunity, but Tennessee opportunities.”

“I’m very proud to be the next governor,” Bredesen said, “You’ve been so helpful to support Andrea and myself, and we need that same help and prayers over the next four years.”

Governor-elect also said he received a gracious call from Congressman Hilleary and he appreciated it. The crowd gave Hilleary huge applauds.

Hilleary has represented the rural fourth Congressional District of Tennessee since 1994. Hilleary ran his campaign largely on the opposition of an income tax.

He also hammered on Bredesen raising property taxes in Nashville three times, writing him off as a big-city tax raiser who could not be trusted to keep taxes low.

Bredesen was Mayor of Nashville from 1991-1998, pointed out the raise in taxes went toward the 32 new schools that were built, the 43 others that were renovated and a new library system. He ran his campaign also on the opposition of an income tax.

He also repeatedly pointed out his qualifications and management skills. Bredesen had painted Hilleary as a professional politician who had never managed anything.

Under Bredesen’s tenure as mayor, Nashville rapidly grew and landed the NFL Titans, the NHL Predators, big corporations such as Dell computers, and provided 106,000 new jobs.

Bredesen also founded the Land Trust for Tennessee, a trust to help preserve agricultural land.

He also supports the Governor School saying he believed in the governor school and supports a new governor school for Agriculture. He would like for a new Governor School for Agriculture to be in West Tennessee, a possibility of being located at UTM.

Drew Kim, from Martin, is Bredesen’s issue and policy adviser.

Kim’s father is Dr. Choong Kim ,former chair of UTM’s Sociology department and a former UTM teacher in the subject of Anthropology.

Bredesen carried Northwest Tennessee.