When Mobile Mayor-elect Sandy Stimpson first expressed his interest in taking on incumbent Mobile Mayor Sam Jones over a year ago, there were very few that thought he would be able to pull it off, and certainly not in the fashion he did on Tuesday night.

Stimpson handily defeated the two-term incumbent — who ran unopposed for the post four years ago — by a 53-47 percent margin.

“There is truly no way that I can express to you the humility and the gratitude that I have for every single person that’s in this room, all of the citizens of Mobile who did believe in us,” Stimpson said to his supporters after the results were tallied at the Fort Whiting Armory. “Well, it’s been an incredible journey. I’m sitting there looking at my father tonight who is in his wheelchair, and he said, ‘Son, you’re going to win.’ And I was very fortunate the night before I announced I was going to run, I had the opportunity to be at my mom and dad’s house and my father put his hand on my head and blessed me. And I knew right then we were starting out right, and God has blessed us.”

He went on to thank the city’s first responders for their support, saying that he could not have won the contest without them.

Stimpson was aided by a strong turnout in the predominantly white precincts in west Mobile and low-turnout in predominantly black precincts that had been a stronghold for Jones in his 2005 bid for mayor.

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