Rep. David Byrd (R-Waynesboro) attends a House committee meeting on March 28, 2018. (Erik Schelzig, Tennessee Journal)

State Rep. David Byrd won’t have to face his accuser after all.

Chrsti Rice had filed to run against Byrd (R-Waynesboro) this fall. But she failed to turn in copies of her Democratic petition in each of the four counties included in House District 71. So while Byrd has two opponents in the GOP primary, there won’t be a Democrat to take on the winner in November.

Byrd earlier this month reversed course on previous pledges to retire from his seat and filed to run for re-election.

Byrd has been accused of sexual misconduct with high school basketball players when he was their coach in the 1980s. Rice is one of those former student athletes. She recorded a phone conversation in 2018 in which Byrd apologized and told her how “hard it has been for me” to live with his actions with the woman, who was a 15 years old  at the time.