There has been some disagreement in the media over whether or not Republican District 27 state Sen. Trudy Wade had conceded her race to Michael Garrett on election night.
However, Thursday, Nov. 15 and Friday, Nov. 16, the Guilford County Board of Elections met and declared the results in the District 27 Senate race official and state Sen.-elect Michael Garrett the winner by 937 votes. According to the official count, Garrett had 45,205 votes to 44,268 for Wade.
Friday, Wade issued this statement: “It has been a tremendous honor to serve the people of Guilford County in the state Senate, and I can’t thank my constituents enough for trusting me to represent them for the past six years. I am proud of all we accomplished together and I wish Michael Garrett the best.”
Wade’s hesitancy to concede until the vote was official is understandable when you consider her experience in past elections.
In 2004 on election night, Wade was announced the winner of her at-large county commissioner race with John Parks. In 2006, after what seemed like endless recounts and court cases, Parks was declared the winner. The fact that a bag of votes was found in a closet at the Board of Elections’ office days after the election may or may not have provided Parks the margin of victory because those votes were dumped in with all the others that had not yet been counted.
