Not every Republican television personality who ran for political office during Tuesday’s US elections lost.

The winner of the TV competition Survivor: David v Goliath in 2018, Nick Wilson, secured a seat as a Republican in Kentucky’s state house of representatives. Wilson’s path to victory wasn’t particularly fraught, as he ran unopposed for a seat that was left empty when the prior officeholder, Regina Huff, retired.

Some viewers may remember Wilson competed on Survivor: David v Goliath, which pitted contestants regarded as underdogs with those labeled overachievers. He emerged at the top of a field that included the creator of the HBO show The White Lotus, Mike White.

Wilson appeared again on Survivor in the show’s Winners of War season in 2020, but he finished seventh.

He will represent Laurel county – which has a population of more than 60,000 people – and his home town, Williamsburg, in Kentucky’s legislative house beginning on 1 January.

Wilson graduated from the University of Kentucky and worked as a public defender after obtaining a law degree from the University of Alabama. He has spoken about how he lost his mother to drug addiction while in law school, and he said his role as a public defender let him help those struggling with the nationwide opioid epidemic.

“That is an issue I will always hold close to my heart,” Wilson told the Louisville Courier-Journal in Kentucky after declaring his candidacy. “These mountains [in Kentucky] have been hard hit by it.”

Wilson on Tuesday afternoon issued a statement describing himself as “thankful to so many for the support”.

“I’m excited to serve and hope to represent the community well,” said the statement, accompanied by photos of him and his wife, Grisel Vilchez, casting their ballots.

Wilson fared better than another Republican television personality, the talkshow host Dr Mehmet Oz, who lost a Pennsylvania US Senate seat to his Democratic rival, John Fetterman. The Democrats will retain control of the Senate if they win either the unresolved race in Nevada, which had not been called as of Saturday afternoon, or the 6 December runoff in Georgia.