The results are in the Athens-Clarke county mayor’s race and there will be no runoff. With 100% of the vote in, Commissioner Kelly Girtz won with just over 60% of the vote.
He spoke with WUGA at his victory celebration Tuesday night.
It feels fantastic to have gotten such overwhelming support from people in this town that I love so much,” Girtz said. “We were on message, we were positive, we were forward-focused, we were honest, we were warm, we were engaging and collectively, all those things yielded success.”
Girtz defeated challengers long-time commissioner Harry Sims and businessman Richie Knight.
Sims says he’s proud of the campaign he ran.
“I thought we ran a very positive campaign, that’s the whole purpose of it is to be positive because we have positive community we live in and after we get finished with an election, you still have to live here,” Sims said. I want to walk around with my head up high because I gave it the best shot that I could give, win or lose, it’s about what’s the best for this community.”
Knight says he gave the race his all.
“We knocked on around 8,000 doors,” according to Knight. I met people from every different kind of walk of life. I wish we could have gotten more doors, but literally left it all on the field.”
WUGA will have ongoing coverage of Tuesday night’s results.
