Michael Naughton is on track to lead the count in Donegal with 1,817 first preference votes in the tallies.
In 2019, the Fianna Fáil representative secured the fourth seat, but today’s tallies reveal he has gained 600 more first-preference votes compared to that election.
Naughton, hailing from West Sligo, remarked that he could only fully depend on two votes in his locality – his own and his wife Annette’s.
“We went out and we had to pick up 1,815 votes,” he admits.
“That is a huge personal vote for me, but it would not happen without my Director of Elections Sinead McGowan and my team of canvassers.”
Naughton credits the individual acts he did for constituents as the secret to his success.
“I am just humbled and honoured people of the Donegal MD gave me such a huge vote.”
Watch the interview with Charlie Collins here: