The unofficial results for the May 6 Port Arthur Independent School District and Port Arthur City Council elections are in.

Incumbent Tiffany Hamilton lost her District Two place on the Port Arthur City Council to Cal Jones. Jones won by a narrow margin of one percent with 50.5 percent of the vote to Hamilton’s 49.5 percent.

“I do plan to contest the numbers on Monday, especially because it was so close,” Hamilton said. “I would contest it even if it was a point over, just because it’s so close either way.”

Hamilton expressed her disappointment, but also her gratitude for all the support she has received.

“I am definitely very disappointed in the outcome because I love my city and I appreciate all the support that I have received over the years, and we still have a lot of work to do,” Hamilton said. “It’s definitely disheartening, but I know that our work isn’t done. I don’t want to discount all of those who have supported me. I have appreciated all that people have done to support me. The work of Port Arthur is not done yet. We still have so much to do.”

Acknowledging low voter turn-out as a possible reason for the loss, Hamilton said that the process is not yet complete and hopes that this turn of events will help people understand how important each of their votes are.

“Bad politicians are elected by good people who don’t vote,” she said.

In addition to the District Two results, voters decided five other seats on the city council and four seats on the PAISD school board.

In the city council race, District One incumbent and Mayor Pro Tem Raymond Scott, Jr. defeated Janice Milo with 53 percent of the vote to 47 percent.

“Thank you!” Scott said as he was congratulated. “I feel great. It was a lot of hard work by citizens of Port Arthur who have been dedicated to me. I just thank God for allowing me to be here and allowing me to serve the city of Port Arthur for another three years.”

In the race for District Three, Thomas Kinlaw III defeated Mark Blanton with 52.4 percent over 47.56 percent

“I can’t wait to get Port Arthur moving forward into a positive direction,” Kinlaw said. “The people in the community, they spoke out loud. They want change and want better for Port Arthur.”

District Four voters chose Harold Doucet over Clonie Ambroise, Jr. by 53.3 percent over 37.25 percent with Alicia Gayle Marshall receiving 9.5 percent. Neither candidate could be reached for comment at press time.

In the Position Seven race, Charlotte Moses beat Morris Albright with 61 percent of the vote to 39.4 percent of the vote.

“With everything I have been doing, I give God all the glory and all the praise. With me being in a near-death accident on the first day of early voting, I am just thankful.”

Moses said she is still recovering from the accident.

“I have some back pain and some burns from the airbag and some bruises but I am thankful to God. I’ve been through a lot of adversity. Morris ran a very good campaign, a very clean campaign. I have worked with him well on council and we always worked well together. I admire his expertise and knowledge. I cannot wait to get to work for Port Arthur and doing better things for the city and get what it deserves in every area.”

In the Position Eight race, Kaprina Richardson Frank beat Kevin Christopher with 62 percent of the vote to 38 percent. The News was unable to immediately reach Frank.

 

In the PAISD race, the top two vote-getters were Kenneth Lofton with 38.27 percent of the vote and Dianne Brown with 26.73 percent, meaning they will be on the school board. Ray Meador got 13.6 percent and Michelle Lockwood-Snodgrass got 21.4 percent.

Lofton is an incumbent and he said he thanked the people who supported him.

“Well I thank the people for coming out and voting,” he said. “I am going to continue doing what I’m doing, representing our kids and our citizens of Port Arthur. For the past nine years I’ve been continuing to help our kids achieve success and I will continue to do that for the next three years.”

This will be Brown’s first time serving on the board. Brown did not immediately return a call for comment.