What’s next for Councilman Chris Jones after Saturday’s caucus

HARRISONBURG, Va. (WHSV) - On Saturday, the Harrisonburg Democratic party held a caucus for city council elections happening in November.

Dany Fleming received the most votes.

Monica Robinson beat out incumbent chair Chris Jones by one vote.

”Unfortunately, my campaign came up one vote short. We received 50 percent of the votes so 155 people chose me to represent them on the Harrisonburg City Council, however, we were one vote short,” Councilman Jones said.

Losing the caucus doesn’t mean Jones is finished with his time on the city council.

He plans to run in a special election to fill the remaining two years of George Hirschmann’s term.

”Business owners, students, families have all reached out and encouraged me to stay in the race, to keep representing their particular section or their particular community and the things they hold dear to them that make Harrisonburg great and so I’m gonna do that,” Jones said.

Jones has been on Harrisonburg City Council since 2014.

”What my track record has shown is there is a diverse appetite for me to serve,” Jones said.

Jones noted that he still has six months of his term left and plans to continue serving the people of Harrisonburg.

”We have moved Harrisonburg forward and we have continued to build a better ‘Burg together and so that’s why I want to continue to serve and so I’m looking forward to being able to participate in the special election,” Jones said.

One of Jones’ biggest accomplishments was growing black and brown businesses in the City of Harrisonburg during his two terms.

“Anyone that connects with the things that we’ve been doing over the last seven and a half years, I want to continue to represent them, those are the folks that asked me to run,” Jones said.

Jones has made an array of allies and supporters from all walks of life during his time on council and hopes to keep “building the ‘Burg” for them.

“Thank you for a great seven and a half years and I look forward to finishing up my eighth year with Harrisonburg City Council,” Jones said. “We have built a great thing in Harrisonburg, we have continued to build a better ‘Burg.”

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