Call her Mayor Karin Wilson. The owner of Page & Palette bookstore, Fairhope, Ala., won yesterday's election by defeating four-term incumbent Mayor Tim Kant to claim the city's top office, garnering 3,525 votes (53.4%) to Kant's 3,071 (46.6%), AL.com reported.
"I am blown away, honestly," said Wilson. "I didn't know what to expect. I was cautiously optimistic."
She "literally entered the mayoral race at the last moment... because she didn't want to see the incumbent mayor run unopposed," AL.com noted, adding that Wilson "was critical of what she said was a lack of execution of the city's comprehensive plan, which was approved by the city last year and addresses ways to best handle the growth issues."
"I don't think I will believe this for a little while," Wilson said. "I thought I'd be a lot more emotional than this. We really didn't know what to expect.... I don't want to waste these opportunities anymore. We have unbelievable opportunities now.... This was a movement. It started with me and took hundreds of people talking to their neighbors and getting out and talking about why this was so important and why in the next four years, we have something in place so we don't turn into any other city."