Keith Davenport has scraped by with a win over incumbent Greg Chapman for a seat on the Gardner Edgerton school board. However, Davenport says he will not fill the seat come January.
That’s because he no longer lives in the member area he was seeking to represent.
Earlier this summer, after he filed to run for school board, Davenport moved out of the Member 6 position area in the Gardner Edgerton School District. This created questions over whether he would still be eligible to serve if elected.
After initially saying he would no longer seek the office, Davenport reversed course a month before the Nov. 4 election, instead declaring he would reactivate his election campaign in order to oust Chapman.
Davenport’s caveat: He said he would only take the seat if he won more than 60% of the votes.
He called back to that promise in an emailed statement Thursday.
“I am a man of my word,” Davenport said. “I committed that if I received less than 60% of the vote, I would not move forward with a legal challenge to maintain the seat after moving. At the end of the day: taking the school district to court is antithetical to my pro-public school values and would be counter productive to what I want to do in the school district. Such action should be reserved only for situations that protect our students or staff.”
In an emailed statement Thursday night, Chapman accepted the outcome of the vote.
“I came up only 17 votes short to continue the great work my fellow board members and I have completed in 4 short years. I look back on my 8.5 years of service to the cities of Edgerton and Gardner with nothing but pride,” Chapman said.
“This election was a tough one,” he continued. “I appreciate all the people who backed me up and pushed back against the flat out lies and hate that was thrown my way. I am proud that I never stooped to those levels against my opponent and hope that in the future the Dems will be able to run on their own values and morals instead of just tearing down their opponents.”
Davenport wins JoCo vote with barely more than 50%
On Thursday, the county certified election results, showing Davenport won over Chapman with 50.23% of the vote to Chapman’s 49.5%.
The final official vote count shows the men separated by 24 votes, 1,645 for Davenport, to 1,621 for Chapman.
That total does not include a smattering of votes cast for the race in Miami County.
Though Miami County election results still need to be certified, unofficial results in that county show 17 votes for Chapman and 9 votes for Davenport.
The combined Johnson County and Miami County vote totals show Davenport still leading with 50.1% to Chapman’s 49.62% of the vote.
Davenport says “change in leadership” still needs to happen
Davenport said he plans to participate in district events as a member-elect until January, and he will vacate the seat in January when the new board is seated.
In his emailed statement, Davenport said though he himself won’t be serving, the “outcome of this election demonstrates our community’s desire for increased integrity and transparency in leadership — a change in leadership.”
He also suggested there should be no effort to fill his seat before January.
“A vacancy for this seat will not be created until after the new Board of Education is seated,” Davenport said. “Any movement to fill the seat prior to that time would be unethical and unlawful, intentionally subverting the will of voters.”
For his part, Chapman said he would be “praying, and ask all of you to pray as well, that the Lord will help the new board select the right replacement for me in the coming months. With a split board, it may be challenging to appoint someone quickly.”
Other Gardner Edgerton school board results
Position 1 (unexpired term)
For Position 1, newcomer Julie Aldridge won against fellow newcomer Melissa Hershey by a margin of 45.90% to 41.61% after certified final results came in Thursday. The third candidate, Matthew Harlow, held 12.28% of the vote.
Position 4
For Position 4, incumbent Lana Sutton beat challenger Sam Dominguez by 50.24% to 49.55%. This will be Sutton’s third term on the board.
The Post reached out to Sutton requesting comment and will update this story when we hear back.
Position 5
Thomas Reddin, currently the board president, ran unopposed for Position 5. He secured 2,289 or 95.30% of the vote.
