Washington D.C.’s youngest Mayor Adrian Fenty has lost his bid for re-election in the Washington, D.C., Democratic primary.
According to the Associated Press, City Council Chairman Vincent Gray beat out Fenty by obtaining 53 percent of yesterday’s vote to 46 percent for Fenty, making Gray the mayor due to no Republican opponent.
“Tonight the people of the District sent a message loud and clear,” Gray told supporters. “Not it’s time for us to look forward.”
Fenty, who, made improving the city’s schools a top priority, brought in Michelle Rhee as public schools chancellor.
Although Rhee seemed like an obvious choice after gaining national attention for her approach to measuring teacher quality by students’ test scores and advocating merit pay, Rhee drew attacks from unions for firing more than 200 teachers over student performance; many feel that it was this choice that led to Fenty’s loss in the election.
Although Rhee is not fully credited for the loss, other area voters felt racially divided over their support of the two black mayoral candidates as well as over Rhee’s performance.
According to the Associated Press, Sixty-eight percent of whites said Rhee was a reason to vote for Fenty.
Fifty-four percent of blacks saw her as a reason to go with Gray.
Gray has said he wouldn’t make a decision about Rhee’s future until after the election.
