Incumbent Kesa Johnston withdraws from Roanoke District 5 runoff

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The Roanoke City Council met Tuesday afternoon to certify the results of last week’s municipal election, and one major change came as a result of that meeting.

Current District 5 councilmember Kesa Johnston, who won a spot in the September 23 runoff by one vote over Ouida Delashaw, withdrew her candidacy. That means that Delashaw now moves on to the runoff along with Kara Hare, who was the leading vote-getter in that district in the August election.

Johnston said a number of factors led to her decision to bow out.

She mentioned a concern that ballooning animosity from current and potential fellow council members would prevent the council from making productive decisions if she were on it.

“I just am at a place, I refuse to give my time and sit on any board that I’m involved with where there are people who lack such integrity and a moral compass that I feel is positive,” Johnston told the Leader Tuesday afternoon, without mentioning anyone specifically.

She said she feared political differences would make her presence on the council unproductive, were she to win reelection.
“I feel like my absence will actually, possibly yield good results for the group as a whole, I hope,” she said.

She also said she felt comfortable with either Hare or Delashaw taking the District 5 seat and mentioned that the three of them had maintained open lines of communication throughout the campaign.

“We ran a fabulous campaign, and we actually talked about what we see as the vision for Roanoke, and we’re all very similar in our beliefs, just all very different in how we would execute those things. And there’s nothing wrong with that,” Johnston said.

Because of that Johnston said she will not endorse either candidate.
“To me they’re both great options, great options,” she said.

Johnston said the financial accomplishments of the current council will be something that she is most proud of in her time as a member.

“One thing this group was able to do was at least understand the funding of a town and how you do that without a massive tax base. I’m proud of that,” she said. “That’s my biggest concern moving forward, is the lack of, or potentially the lack of understanding of how that works. Because we had to spend a long time figuring it out. We had to be invested in learning those things. And I think in the past people have been remiss.”

Johnston’s withdrawal means that, at most, only two current councilmembers will sit on that body come November. District 1’s Tammi Holley won re-election handily in the August vote, and District 3 incumbent Tim Jacobs will face Ronald Barngrover in the runoff later this month.

The city chose Adam Melton as its new mayor to replace current mayor Jill Patterson-Hicks, who did not run for a second term.

District 4 chose Barbara Alford as its new representative after current councilmember Mike Parmer chose not to seek reelection.

Johnnie Wilkes Henderson will face Nicole Howard in the District 2 runoff to replace John Frank Houston.

The runoff is Tuesday, Sept. 23. Voting will take place at the Handley High School gymnasium.