Lexington 8th District council member Fred Brown narrowly beats opponent for seat

Incumbent 8th district council member Fred Brown narrowly defeated challenger Kenya Williams in Tuesday’s general election to keep his seat on the Urban County Council, according to results from the Secretary of State.

Brown received 3,086 (51%) of the votes while Williams received 2,993, a difference of 93 votes. It was the smallest margin of victory of all the district council races.

Brown has spent nearly 20 years representing the 8th District on the city council. He was first elected to city council in 1994 and stayed there for 11 years before deciding to step down to focus on his accounting career.

When Brown retired, he felt his spare time would be best served on the council again. So he ran in 2014 and defeated LeTonia Jones by more than 700 votes.

Brown didn’t immediately respond to a phone call from the Herald-Leader after results were released Tuesday evening.

This election was Williams’ first time on the campaign trail. He told the Herald-Leader he believes if he had done a few things differently, he would’ve won.

“I am confident that if I started earlier, was better prepared when it comes to fundraising and getting my name out there, that I do win this race, handedly actually,” Williams said.

Williams said he hopes Brown “does more and says less” going forward as an urban council member.

“Especially for someone that has been around for such a long time like Mr. Brown has, my goal is just that he does more,” Williams said. “That’s the whole reason I ran in the first place.”

Williams said his immediate plans are to get more involved in the community in whatever capacity he can. He said he will run for office again and believes the experiences he gained from this campaign will help him going forward.

“I know I got what it takes, whether it’s city council or representative or whatever it is that I decide to do next, I got what it takes to be successful,” Williams said. “It’s just the strategy and making sure that I am putting myself in the best possible situation to win is what will make that difference.”

This story was originally published November 8, 2022 at 9:03 PM.

Christopher Leach

Lexington Herald-Leader

Chris Leach is a breaking news reporter for the Lexington Herald-Leader. He joined the newspaper in September 2021 after previously working with the Anderson News and the Cats Pause. Chris graduated from UK in December 2018. Support my work with a digital subscription