District 1: Williams unseats Headen
By Ethan Smith
Published in News on November 4, 2015 1:46 PM
News-Argus/MELISSA KEY
Mark Stevens, new District 3 council member, left, congratulates Antonio Williams, new District 1 council member, on his victory over incumbent Michael Headen for his seat in the Goldsboro City Council after receiving the election results on Tuesday evening at the Board of Elections.
Challenger Antonio Williams unseated incumbent Michael Headen for the District 1 seat on the Goldsboro City Council after unofficial election results were revealed Tuesday night.
Williams received 167 votes, while Headen received 110 votes. There were five write-in ballots. Who the write-in ballots were for will be revealed Thursday.
Williams watched ballot numbers roll in at the Wayne County Board of Elections, arriving as the early voting numbers were reported by the board of elections.
Early totals showed Williams in the lead, which proved to hold true once the last of the numbers were reported from each precinct.
"It still feels surreal," Williams said. "It feels wonderful. I believe I personally feel a lot of the challenges that many people in my district also feel, which will help make me more apt to help them and be able to serve them."
Williams, who grew up in Goldsboro, said he was excited once he saw the early voting results showing him in the lead.
"It felt pretty good to see that," he said. "But, of course, I want to thank my constituents and everybody that came out and voted, especially those that supported me."
Now, Williams said, he has a few things he would like to address once he takes his seat on the City Council -- namely, blight and bringing jobs to Goldsboro.
"The first thing I want to address is the blight in our community, being that I want to work to connect with businesses and young men and women in our community to get more young people into jobs that pay a living wage," Williams said. "I just want to make sure everybody knows that I'm going to work hard for our city and I want to thank God for giving me this opportunity to serve on the City Council."
A call placed Tuesday night to Headen requesting comment on the results of the election was not returned by press time.