Kelly Takes The Chattanooga Mayoral Seat, Hill And Hester Win For City Council

Photo: Tim Kelly, Jenny Hill & Isiah Hester

Photo Credit: Tim Kelly / Instagram, Jenny Hill / Facebook, Isiah Hester / Instagram

Published April 14, 2021

The Tennessee Conservative Staff-

Chattanooga, TN – Yesterday, the voters took to the polls to cast their votes in Chattanooga’s runoff elections for City Mayor and for District 2 and 5 City Council members. 

The polls closed at 7PM EST and the ballots were counted into the early evening. 

For City Mayor, the candidates were Tim Kelly and Kim White. 

For the District 2 City Council seat, Jenny Hill and Thomas Lee faced off while for District 5 Dennis Clark’s opposition was Isiah Hester. 

Of 114,289 eligible voters, only 26,705 cast their ballots. 

Despite his history of questionable behavior before and during the election, Tim Kelly won took the mayor’s seat with 15,966 votes. 

Kim White trailed with 10,661 votes. 

The Hamilton County Election commission also counted 44 write-in votes. 

For the District 2 City Council seat, Jenny Hill won with 2,721 votes trailed by Thomas Lee with 1,762 votes with 20 write-ins.  

For the District 5 City Council seat, Isiah Hester won with 1,598 votes trailed by Dennis Clark with 1,332 votes with 14 write-ins. 

During Kim White’s concession speech, she stated, “The outcome isn’t what I had hoped or wanted and we never know where our path leads us.. I feel like this is that path God has put me down.” 

White expressed that she did call Kelly to congratulate him on his win. 

“It has been a tough race.  I am so proud of the way we conducted ourselves.  The best part of this whole season was the people I met in this community that love this city.  And I love this city too.” White said. 

According to NewsChannel 9, Kelly declared an early victory before all the ballots were counted. 

During Kelly’s acceptance speech, he said, “It’s been a very good evening.  The results are in, and our teams told me you guys are stuck with me for the next four years.” 

Kelly thanked a long series of individuals that helped him win the election including the voters and went on to touch on a bit of policy with a heavy focus on “equity”.

He stated that he wants to make sure that every child in the community has access to the early childhood opportunities they need to succeed.  

Kelly stated, “We will begin to close the opportunity gap between our black neighbors and our white neighbors.” 

“The city will quickly transition to a recovery plan to jumpstart our economy and make sure that good jobs and opportunity remain the cornerstone of our economic development strategy,” Kelly said. 

Regarding White, Kelly said, “She did the hard work of stepping up and campaigning…I look forward to working with her.”