Harrisburg Mayor Wanda Williams (center) celebrates her re-election victory.
Harrisburg Mayor Wanda Williams won a second term on Tuesday, besting the city’s treasurer for a second time this year.
With all precincts reporting, incumbent Williams received a tally of 5,096 votes versus 3,837 for Dan Miller, currently Harrisburg’s treasurer.
“Thank you for giving me another four years,” said Williams, at her victory party in Uptown Harrisburg. “I promise as I did before: a new Harrisburg. Now, who’s with me?”
Mayoral candidate Dan Miller tallied up votes as results came in.
Like Williams, Miller is a registered Democrat. However, he was running on the Republican ticket after narrowly losing the Democratic primary to Williams in May, but garnering enough write-in votes to secure the Republican nomination.
After conceding defeat, Miller said that he gave it his best but couldn’t overcome running on the Republican side in such a Democratic city.
“It’s so disappointing,” said Miller, at his election eve gathering of supporters at the Millworks. “You don’t know how many people told me you have to win. They know that Harrisburg is in a bad place.”
Lewis Butts Jr., who also lost in the Democratic primary in May, was running for mayor as a write-in candidate. Butts’ tally wasn’t available on Tuesday night, but it’s assumed he received all or most of the 93 write-in votes.
Other than the mayoral race, Harrisburg’s other general election races lacked competition in the overwhelmingly Democratic city.
For City Council, Jocelyn Rawls, Ralph Rodriguez, Ausha Green and Rob Lawson all won running unopposed for four, four-year seats. For school board, Roslyn Copeland, Danielle Robinson, Brian Carter and Jaime Johnsen all won running unopposed for four, four-year seats, while Annie Hughes captured the lone two-year seat, also unopposed.
Democrat Karen Balaban, running unopposed, won a four-year term as city controller. She’ll replace long-time controller Charlie DeBrunner, who did not stand for re-election.
Dauphin County also had elections for several row offices and judgeships this year, with Democrats performing well.
For prothonotary, Democratic challenger Antonio Carreno of Harrisburg unseated the Republican incumbent, Matt Krupp, also of Harrisburg. For clerk of courts, Democrat Tina Nixon of Harrisburg bested the Republican nominee, John McDonald. For county coroner, long-time Republican incumbent Graham Hetrick squeaked past the Democratic nominee, John Harris Jr.
In close races for Dauphin County Court of Common Pleas judge, Democrats Katy Kennedy-McShane and La Tasha Williams defeated Republicans Fran Chardo and Jim Zugay.
All results in this story are preliminary until made official. TheBurg will update this story if necessary.
Maddie Gittens and Alexandra Jones contributed to this story.
If you like what we do, please support our work. Become a Friend of TheBurg!
