Politics

Smith, Roundtree, Walsh, Morales advance to Nov. 2 election

By Lightning Reports, Published: October 5, 2021

Jerry Smith, Debbie Roundtree, Chelsea Walsh and Raphael Morales advanced to the Nov. 2 general election with all the votes tabulated in unofficial results in the Hendersonville City Council primary on Tuesday night.

Smith, the mayor pro tem and the only incumbent on the ballot, led the balloting with 23 percent of the vote followed by Roundtree with 21 percent, Walsh with 18 and Morales with 17. Mike Baer won 11 percent of the vote and Mike Vesely 9 percent. Turnout was 10.6 percent.

"I think first of all, it's a reflection of all the hard work that our supporters put in in the campaign," Smith said. "Second of all, I think it reflects that the voters that have been pleased with what I've done in the last 12 years and third, there's still a lot of work to do before the general election and I'm ready to get to work because the votes are very close."

Roundtree, who has run numerous times for local offices in the past decade, credited her perseverance.

"Hard work, dedication, being at the polls on my lunch hour and coming back and staying until the elections board closed (during early voting) and being out today all day long in the rain," she said. "I hit different spots and ended up staying at one, Bruce Drysdale," for several hours. "I ran like four times and I feel like my efforts are paying off." Asked about her general election outlook, she said, "I'm a registered Democrat but I can see the support of other partisanship. I help everybody. It doesn't matter."

Morales also credited work he and his supporters put in to engage voters one on one.

"We're a poor, grassroots campaign," Morales said. "We met them where they are, we're doing the legwork, knocking on doors, getting some people that hadn't voted before. We're speaking to people that are disenfranchised in general and I know we've got a lot of work ahead."

Morales said he planned more of the same in the next four weeks.

"I'm just going to keep sharing our platform, staying the course and advocating as much as I can for folks whose voices are not heard. We'll keep knocking on doors and keep the campaign going."

This is a developing story. Return to the Lightning for more details.