Incumbent John Gregory held onto his Statesville City Council seat following an impressive win Tuesday in a run-off election against business owner Gene Houpe.
"I want to thank everyone who voted for me," the at-large councilman said after the unofficial results were released by the Iredell County Board of Elections. "I want them to know that I am going to try to do the best I can."
Gregory, who finished second in a six-person race for two seats in Statesville's Oct. 6 elections, took 60.4 percent of the vote in Tuesday's run-off against Houpe, who finished third last month.
"I was hoping to win," Gregory said. "But I really didn't think it would be by this much to be honest."
The unofficial final vote count was 941 for Gregory, 613 for Houpe.
Houpe attributed his loss to Gregory's incumbency.
"I'm not going to hang my head," the challenger said. "I think I did everything I could. But John has a lot of name recognition and I think the voters allowed that to replace their objectivity."
Houpe said he ran the best campaign he could and wanted to thank his supporters.
"We did our part. We worked as hard as we could," he said. "As I said before, it was possible we wouldn't win this but we were not going to be outworked and we weren't."
Houpe, who was beaten last year in a Republican primary in his race for a seat on the Iredell County Board of Commissioners, said he may take another shot at county government next year.
"But I don't know about that yet," he said.
Gregory, who was the top vote-getter in the at-large race in 2005, said he wanted Statesville residents to know that he intends to work hard for everyone in the city.
"I want everyone, even those who didn't vote for me, to know that I represent them and that I will do everything I can for them," he added. "All they have to do is call me. My number is in the phone book."
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