Fayetteville Primary Election: Mayor Colvin easily advances; see full election results
FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. (WTVD) -- The results are in for the Fayetteville mayoral primary - with 10 candidates vying for the office - and three of them giving up their current city council seats to do so.
It's now down to just two.
It was a highly anticipated primary with so many familiar faces joining the group of 10 people hoping to become the next mayor of Fayetteville.
Incumbent mayor Mitch Colvin easily sailed through Tuesday night's primary; he received more than two and a half times as many votes as his closest competition, Kathy Keefe Jensen, who will officially be his only challenger in the November election.
MAYORAL RESULTS
Jensen is the mayor pro tem and represents District 1 right now. She gave up her seat to try to win the mayoral office.
Current city council member Mario Benavente came up short, finishing third, and winning about half as many votes as Jensen. He will not serve on the city council next year as he gave up his council seat in District 3 to run for mayor.
As a reminder, Colvin had announced earlier this year that he did not plan to seek reelection but reversed course just before the deadline came up after current city council members, including Jensen, Benavente, and Courtney Banks-McLoughlin, all gave up their current positions to run for mayor.
With such a crowded mayoral race, there were some questions about turnout. Looking at voter turnout numbers from the past 10 years, this is the highest voter turnout in the last decade for a primary in Fayetteville.
A little more than 10% of voters - about 14,000 people showed up to cast their ballots. That's about 3,500 more than the last primary.
CITY COUNCIL RESULTS
Who was on the ballot?
Fayetteville Mayor
- John Ashford
- Courtney Banks-McLaughlin
- Mario "Be" Benavente
- Mitch Colvin
- Freddie de la Cruz
- Kathy Keefe Jensen
- Clifton L. Johnson
- Nahlee Iris Smith
- Tisha S. Waddell
- Paul Williams
Fayetteville City Council District 1
- Jamie Davis
- Stephon Ferguson
- Theodore Melkoumov
- James L. Thomas III
Fayetteville City Council District 2
- Malik Davis
- Gail Morfesis
- Joseph (Joey) Thames
Download the ABC11 App, get Real-time Election Results
Fayetteville City Council District 3
- Antonio Jones
- Jeremy Wright
Fayetteville City Council District 4
- Stuart A. Collick
- D.J. Haire
Fayetteville City Council District 5
- Lynne Bissette Greene
Fayetteville City Council District 6
- Kenneth E. Odegard II
- Derrick Thompson
Fayetteville City Council District 7
- Dwight France
- J'Kwan Fulmore
- Kathy A. Greggs
- Brenda McNair
- Khalil Younger
Fayetteville City Council District 8
- Rodney E. Garvin
- Mahmoud A. (Travis) Hamed
- Shaun McMillan
- Robbie Poole
Fayetteville City Council District 9
- Deno Hondros
- Gary A. Hunt
- Joe McGee
SEE ALSO: Advocacy groups engage in outreach during National Voter Registration Day
