Harrison easily wins re-election as Williamsburg mayor; incumbent council members all victorious

Williamsburg voters are apparently happy with city leadership as they gave incumbent Mayor Roddy Harrison a fourth consecutive term in office and re-elected all six Williamsburg City Council members during Tuesday’s General Election.

Mayor Roddy Harrison easily won re-election Tuesday.

Harrison garnered 905 votes to Dr. Bernard Moses 204 votes to win re-election.

Harrison said that he was surprised and didn’t really expect that margin of victory.

“I am thrilled. I am overwhelmed, humbled, whatever adjective you can think of I am at this point,” he said Tuesday evening. “Bernard ran a hard race. I mean he went after it hard. The faith that people showed in me with their voting, I feel like they are confident in me. I am just beyond words. I just want to thank everybody for going and voting and voting like they did. I just really appreciate them.”

This was only the third time that Harrison had opposition during his tenure as Williamsburg Mayor.

When he was first elected during a special election in 2004, Harrison received 1,300 votes to Bobby Bryant’s 249 votes.

Two years later in 2006 during his first bid for re-election, Harrison received 971 votes to challenger Karen Hamblin’s 342 votes.

This was Moses first attempt at running for public office.

Harrison said that his plans for the next four years could be summed up as “moving Williamsburg forward.”

Harrison said the goals range from things as small as more events to infrastructure improvement projects and renovating downtown.

There is also a planned expansion of the waterpark.

“We have just got a lot of work ahead of us and we have a lot of goals. Everything we are going to do is just to keep moving Williamsburg forward.”

He is also hoping to bring a new medical facility to Williamsburg, something he has been working towards for the last seven years.

“I still feel the health of our community is number one priority,” Harrison added.

Council re-elected

Voters also gave the nod to all six incumbent Williamsburg City Council members in a rematch of the race two years ago.

Erica Harris was again the leading vote getter with 769 votes. She was closely followed by Laurel West with 760 votes, Loren Connell with 730 votes, Mary Ann Stanfill with 659 votes, Patty Faulkner with 618 votes, Richard Foley with 597 votes and challenger Adam Sulfridge with 487 votes.

The results were similar in 2016 when Harris garnered 894 votes to Connell’s 858 votes, West’s 828 votes, Stanfill’s 793 votes, Faulkner’s 677 votes, Foley’s 666 votes and Sulfridge’s 545 votes.