Turnout was as low as expected in Tuesday’s Atlanta runoffs, but the results count just the same and Atlanta’s 61st mayor will be City Councilman Andre Dickens, who defeated City Council President Felicia Moore 64 percent to 36 percent, a difference of some 22,000 votes.
Moore finished first in the November 2nd general election with 41 percent of the vote to Dickens’ 23 percent, but fell short of the 50 percent-plus one needed to avoid a runoff. In subsequent weeks though big names from the Atlanta Democratic machine came out in support of Dickens, including Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, six City Council members, and former mayors Shirley Franklin and Andrew Young. Those endorsements seemed to tighten up the race, with polls showing a dead heat or Dickens with a slight lead heading into Tuesday.
Dickens widened that lead on election day, riding his late wave of momentum and driving just enough turnout in a race that saw just 78,000 votes counted in total as of midnight. Bottoms, who seems to have recovered some of the popularity she lost over the course of the past two years, joined him on stage as he declared victory Tuesday night at a party near Downtown.
The majority of Buckhead voters, who of course are staring down the possibility of splitting off from Atlanta next year, voted for Moore. But it wasn’t enough to stave off Dickens, who flipped parts of East Atlanta that Moore won in the general and dominated precincts in South Atlanta.
Down the ballot, former Woodruff Arts Center CEO Doug Shipman defeated Atlanta City Councilwoman Natalyn Archibong in a much closer contest to become the next Atlanta City Council President. And it was a bad night for incumbents in runoffs, with Councilmembers Cleta Winslow and Joyce Shepherd both losing.
So too did South Fulton Mayor Bill Edwards, who lost his runoff to Khalid Kamau.
