Swank wins Democratic primary for council seat

Graphic by Emily Zeiler.

Alan Swank won the fourth ward Democratic primary race for Athens City Council against incumbent Chris Fahl on Tuesday. 

After winning her council seat in 2009, Fahl has run opposed and maintained her council seat since, according to a previous report by The New Political. 

The race between Swank and Fahl was the only one on the ballot in all of Athens County.

Swank won with 65% of the vote and with a turnout of 39% for Democratic voters in the Fourth Ward, according to unofficial election night votes from the Athens County Board of Elections. 

“I’d like to thank Councilmember Fahl for her 12 years of service with the city, and also for running a very positive campaign,” Swank said. “After coming off this past fall with what we saw at the national level, it was nice to a campaign where both candidates were talking about the issues rather than each other. And I appreciate the fact that she was able to do that.” 

Swank thanked his children, children-in-law and his wife. He also thanked his supporters, people who helped and contributed to his campaign, his campaign treasurer John Barrington and the voters. 

“To have almost 300 people go out to the polls, and close to 200 pull the lever on my behalf, boy, I can't thank the people enough for doing that.” 

Coming off of the primary victory, Swank, who will run in the general election this fall, is looking to get to work immediately. 

“I plan to start working tomorrow. Technically, my term will not start ‘til right after the first of next year, but I plan to start working tomorrow on the things I campaigned on,” Swank said. “Fiscal matters, fiscal responsibility and everything the city does. Working towards true affordable housing. Issues that deal with social and racial equity. And probably most importantly, getting out and continuing to talk to the residents of the Fourth Ward.”

Fahl was unable to be reached for comment on the election results at the time of publication.

Debbie Quivey, the director of the Athens County Board of Elections, said there was a strong turnout among registered Democrats for the primary.

“Turnouts in elections like this normally are low, but that’s a pretty good turnout on the Democratic side,” Quivey said in a phone interview. 

Audri Wilde, Zach Zimmerman and Emily Crebs contributed to this report.