Incumbents sweep Afton city races

AFTON - Four incumbents won their elections in a sweep of Afton mayoral and city council races.

Union County Auditor Sandy Hysell released the 2025 general election results Tuesday night. For the mayoral race, 199 votes were cast, and 323 were cast for city council. This is an improvement compared to 2021’s mayoral and council election, with 76 votes for mayor and 159 for city council.

Mayor of Afton Michelle Burger will continue her term for the next four years as she wins the election against challenger Gary Clear with 139 votes to Clear’s 60.

“My goals have always been to make Afton a place people are proud to call home and somewhere people feel their voices are heard,” Michelle said during a candidate forum in October.

Similarly, all incumbents on the Afton City Council will continue their terms for the next four years. In an at-large election where voters chose two candidates, Jeff Burger and Kristie Nixon with 135 and 116 votes respectively beat Clarissa McCollough with 67.

Both Jeff Burger and Nixon will serve for the next four years. Afton City Council seats operate on staggered terms; council members Steve Kinyon, Sheryl Parham and Dave Cunningham will face reelection in 2027.

All Afton city candidates ran similar campaigns, acknowledging the need for housing, supporting Greenlawn Cemetery’s independent board and taking action on nuisance properties.

Jeff and Nixon both included nuisance properties as one of the major issues facing Afton when speaking at October’s candidate forum. The two said they were interested in creating programs encouraging property rehabilitation.

“I think most people need guidance,” Jeff said. “Help, maybe some training, maybe there’s something out there that we can get a group together to help get them where we need to go.”

Nixon held similar views.

“I think some of those rehabilitation programs or grants would really be beneficial to help our town clean up our nuisance and problem properties in our area,” Nixon said.

In a shake-up of East Union’s school board, challenger Dennis Cheers swiped the seat by a single vote. Cheers ousted Adam Tallmon, currently as serving as board director, after obtaining 34 votes to Tallmon’s 33.

Jamie Buffington was also reelected for District 5. Buffington ran unopposed.