Todd Jordan wins Tupelo's mayoral race
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Jun. 9—TUPELO — Todd Jordan cemented his rapid rise through local politics on Tuesday night, winning election as mayor and flipping the city's top elected office back to the Republican Party.
SEE ELECTION RESULTS HERE
In unofficial results, Jordan, 50, defeated Victor Fleitas, a 54-year-old attorney, by capturing 62.3% of the vote. Jordan, a Republican, held a 1,497-vote lead. According to the municipal clerk, there are only 447 outstanding absentee ballots cast in the race.
Jordan is a Tupelo native and a graduate of Tupelo High School, where he was the quarterback for the school's football team. He attended Mississippi State University from 1989 to 1993 and was a quarterback and a punter for the university's football team.
After graduating from college, he played for the San Antonio Texans in the Canadian Football League for a brief stint.
Jordan returned to Tupelo in 1995 and started a pressure washing business. In 2006, he started working for Tommy Morgan, Inc. as a real estate agent, where he remains employed. In 2019, he began his career in local politics by defeating incumbent Lee County supervisor Tony Roper.
Throughout his campaign, Jordan said that, if elected, he would rely on an advisory committee to guide the nomination of a police chief, work to attract young families to the area, make the city a destination for weekend trips and study how other cities have managed their growth.
Jordan defeated Victor Fleitas, the Democratic nominee, who campaigned on making the government more transparent, partnering with local schools to improve public education, upgrading local infrastructure and working to ensure equal employment opportunities exist inside City Hall.
Fleitas and Jordan largely agreed on many common issues that impacted the city such as access to affordable housing, infrastructure and the need to grow the city's population.
However, a sharp wedge between the two candidates emerged over how the mayor should respond to a future pandemic, what role the city should play in vaccinating its citizens, how the city's next police chief should be hired and the need to construct a new Lee County Adult Jail.
Jordan's Tuesday night victory comes after he previously defeated Markel Whittington, a three-term member of the Tupelo City Council, in the Republican primary.
The city's newest mayor will replace Democrat Jason Shelton, who chose not to run again after serving two terms.
Jordan's seat on the Lee County Board of Supervisor will now become vacant when he assumes office as mayor.
Although no official appointment has been made, at least one member of the county board has suggested appointing Todd Jordan's wife, Christy Jordan, as a temporary replacement until a special election could be conducted.
Jordan will take office as the city's 29th mayor on July 1.
