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NATCHEZ — Valencia Hall prevailed to become the new alderwoman for Natchez Ward 1 and Felicia Bridgewater-Irving won a victory to be reelected to the Natchez Ward 4 seat in Tuesday’s Natchez Municipal General Election.

Ward 1

Hall garnered 457 votes, or 79.9% of the vote, to independent challenger Jamar White’s 115 votes, or 20.1% of the vote.

The margin was wide enough to offset any difference absentee ballots cast in Ward 1 might make.

“Wow!” Hall said of Tuesday’s victory. “The first person who congratulated me was Jamar White, my opponent, and he was just very, very gracious and said that he looks forward to working in some capacity with us and he is grateful that we ran a clean race.”

The second person Hall said congratulated her was outgoing Natchez Mayor Darryl Grennell.

“I was happy to hear from him and his congratulations,” Hall said. “I’m just looking forward to what he has to offer before he leaves office.”

Hall said the campaign had been an exhilarating journey for Natchez and the residents of Ward 1.

“We can now, with the leadership we have move toward a unified Natchez and a unified Ward 1, and I’m looking forward to joining this board and working toward progress for Natchez and for Ward 1,” Hall said. “I want to thank my family, my mother and my sisters, my nieces, nephews, great nieces and great nephews for all of their unwavering support and my supporters in Natchez and Ward 1 and Barry Wilson and his wife, Felicia Wilson, have been with me from day 1 on this journey. I want to congratulate them, too. They are constituents of Ward 1 and have been very, very kind and generous of their time and effort on this journey so I want to congratulate them personally as well.”

Ward 4

Irving garnered 433 votes, or 67.8% of the vote, to Floyd’s 206 votes, or 32.2% of the vote.

“I give all thanks to God,” Irving said. “I feel so grateful at this time. I thank God. I thank my family. I thank my friends, and I thank my community members for them to have the confidence in me to go to the polls not once, not twice but three times to put me out to be the front winner. Tonight they sealed it with a win and I’m just truly grateful.”

Irving said she is excited to work with the new board.

“I’m glad to get back to be a part of the board so we can move Natchez forward with the plan that we have and want to get with this board so we can all work collectively to move Natchez forward. I’m a team player, and I know I can’t do anything by myself. It takes all of us to get it done.”