Election Results in Fairhope

During the recent election night in Fairhope, five candidates received backing from advocates who sought to relocate certain books identified as inappropriate at the Fairhope Public Library.

Among the candidates, Joshua Gammon emerged victorious, though the others were not as successful. Interestingly, three out of four incumbents criticized by book challengers for their support of the library managed to retain their positions.

Gammon, along with Troy Vickers, David Look, George Ferniney, and Tracy Gatewood, were all endorsed by the Fairhope Face Collective. Additionally, there was financial backing from vocal opponents of the library, including Brian Dusinger, Carol Wilson, and Karin Werhausen Tank from the Freedom of Faiths organization.

The City Council Speaker, Jack Burrell, faced stiff competition from Vickers, securing just 52% of the vote. Notably, the web domain from Burrell’s previous campaign, which remains linked in his materials, directed users to a site endorsing drag queen story hour.

Incumbents Jay Robinson and Jimmy Conaire comfortably won over 60% of the votes, indicating that their challengers didn’t perform nearly as well as Vickers did. Ferniany, meanwhile, fell behind Andrea Faustbooth by 13 points and lost an available seat.

Hotel operator Gammon narrowly defeated Corey Martin, the lone black representative in Congress. Despite the encouragement from Book Challengers, Gammon’s campaign focused more on addressing the city’s infrastructure needs amid rapid expansion, without mentioning the library issue.

Looking ahead, the Alabama Public Library Services may determine at its meeting on September 18 whether to restore funding for the Fairhope Library. This decision stems from the library’s failure to accommodate materials deemed “sexually explicit” that must be removed from the adult section, which has raised concerns about availability for minors.