The two received the largest share of the votes out of a seven-candidate field. Gorton, who received 46% of the vote, is seeking her third term. Carter, a first-time candidate, received 28% of the vote.
They beat out candidates including C.E. Huffman, Darnell Tagaloa, Greg O’Neal, Skip Horline and Ramazani Asmani.
Gorton said her top priority has been attracting jobs to Fayette County.
“We've had really good, high numbers of people working here in Fayette County, and that is not by accident. We have to continue to work with our fairly new workforce center, and the job work we're doing at the jail for inmates who are getting released,” Gorton said.
Carter, with her background in real estate, said her main concern is building more affordable housing.
“As it's become more expensive to even live here in Lexington, we realize that we're really missing the boat on opportunity for others, for our young people, for people graduating from college, for our working families with kids, they are now struggling in a way that they just shouldn't have to,” Carter said.
Another prominent issue surrounding the mayoral race is the city’s plan for winter weather, which came under criticism earlier this year after a winter storm left ice on Lexington roads for nearly two weeks. Gorton said she’s been busy making changes.
“This weather situation has taught us that we need to go forward in a different way, and we’re having great collaboration,” Gorton said. “It's an internal group, it has a couple council members on it, it has folks from the different divisions who were impacted or who worked on the storm, and then we'll be doing a draft and putting it out this summer to our partners.”
Carter, in contrast, argues the city hasn’t been proactive enough to address the issue.
“We are able to be prepared for severe weather, we can do it, other cities are able to do it, and it is so important that we prioritize that,” Carter said. “It's not just inconvenient for people, it's not just cold, it's not just that our kids are stuck home, and we gotta find something for them to do. You know, people miss paychecks, families miss paychecks.”
Further down the ballot, Stephenie Hoelscher and Nicholas Wolter advanced to the general election for Urban County Council District 5, which includes parts of southeast Lexington.
