DUBLIN, Ga. — Voters in Dublin now know who’s set to be the next leader of the Emerald City. This comes after former Mayor Phil Best retired earlier this year.
Around 3,000 voters cast their ballot in the race, which saw candidate Joshua Kight come out on top.
"It's been a lot of hard work to get to this point, and I know it's going to be a lot of hard work ahead of us, but [it’s] quite [an] exciting time to be able to share with all of the volunteers who worked so hard and my family who sacrificed so much,” said Kight.
He’s a lawyer, husband and father of three. All four of them stood by his side throughout Election Day.
“Whenever we started this, it was a family project, we were all in it together. We all knew we had sacrifices to make and we talked about that and we prayed about it. They've been fantastic,” said Kight.
He ran against Jerry Davis who conceded the race.
"I'm fine with it. We had two good people running in the race. The city will be in good hands with Joshua as mayor,” said Davis.
Kight says he’ll be working to make Dublin safer by tackling crime. He’ll start off his term searching for a new police chief after current chief Tim Chatman announced his retirement this fall.
"Luckily, I've been working with the city for almost a decade now, so I am ready to make a difference. The whole reason I did this was to improve our town; and to improve our town, it's going to take a whole lot of work. I'm ready to do that, and I'm ready to start,” said Kight.
More than 1,700 voters cast their ballot for Kight. Davis received just over 1,300 votes.