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Darryl Grennell smiles Tuesday evening after being announced the next mayor of Natchez at the house Edelweiss on Broadway Street in Natchez. (Nicole Hester / The Natchez Democrat)

Mayor-elect of Vidalia Buz Craft congratulates Darryl Grennell Tuesday evening after being announced the next Mayor of Natchez. (Nicole Hester / The Natchez Democrat)

Darryl Grennell gives his victory speech Tuesday night after winning the election for mayor. (Nicole Hester / The Natchez Democrat)

Darryl Grennell takes photos with supporters Tuesday at his victory party at Edelweiss on Broadway Street in Natchez. (Nicole Hester / The Natchez Democrat)

Kathie Blankenstein, Margaret Perkins and Loretta Ross listen to Darryl Grennell give his victory speech Tuesday night. (Nicole Hester / The Natchez Democrat)

Tremaine Mitchell listens from underneath the porch of Edelweiss Tuesday as Darryl Grennell gives his victory speech. (Nicole Hester / The Natchez Democrat)

NATCHEZ — Facing a setting sun as he stood atop the steps of Edelweiss on the Natchez bluff, Darryl Grennell told supporters that under his leadership Natchez would see a new day and that he understood his landslide victory as a mandate that he shouldn’t govern “the Natchez way.”

Grennell — the Democratic former president of the Adams County Board of Supervisors and a retired professor from Alcorn State University — carried the general election for the Natchez mayor’s race with 2,575 votes, or 91.38 percent.

His challenger, independent Eric Junkin, received 8.4 percent, or 236 votes.

“I’ve always said that in Natchez there are three ways of doing things — the right way, the wrong way and the Natchez way,” Grennell said, before characterizing the Natchez way as, “the common folks get told a fairy tale and the real decisions are made behind closed doors.”

The Natchez way has been to divide and conquer and spending a majority of time fighting internally and spreading rumors, he said.

During his campaign, Grennell has been to every house in Natchez, he said, and the resounding message he’s heard from “the common people, the salt of the earth” is that they want change.

“The people of Natchez are tired of the old way of doing things at City Hall,” he said. “They are not just tired of the last four years; they are tired of the last 20 years.”

While he acknowledged that “the problems that face us are enormous,” naming among them a struggling school system and “financial chaos in City Hall,” Grennell’s message was one of optimism, saying that Natchez is at a fork in the road and that “the people of Natchez have decided to embrace the future.”

Grennell invoked 2016’s celebration of the Natchez tricentennial as a landmark for the future, telling the crowd that one of his goals is that in the future someone will step into the office is about to take, “and celebrate the 400th anniversary of a thriving city.”

That means focusing on job creation, recreation, expanding tourism, recruiting industry and eliminating redundancy and waste, he said.

“Some people are skeptical about change in Natchez. They believe the same old, same old is something we will endure forever,” he said. “Those people have got it wrong. Change is coming — real change.”

While Grennell noted he would be Natchez’s third black mayor — following Robert Wood in 1869 and Philip West in 2004 — Grennell said he “was not elected to be the mayor of the black community, nor the mayor of the white community.”

“I will work to ensure the future of every family,” he said.

Grennell said he could not thank every person who helped him get elected because doing so would take too long, he said, but those who helped did so because they believed the city needed a new direction.

“Natchez is an old city, and it has a great destiny,” he said. “I am ready to lead you as we prove together we have the strength to fulfill that destiny.”

Junkin’s comments after the election were brief.

“Congrats to Darryl,” he said.

Grennell came to the general election after a primary victory over fellow Democrat Tony Fields, a two-term city alderman. In that race, Grennell received 70.6 percent of the vote.

When introducing Grennell to the crowd Tuesday, Natchez author Greg Iles said that while 71 percent of the vote can be seen as a mandate, 91 percent is a landslide.

Grennell embodies the future of Natchez, but “with any luck, Mississippi itself,” Iles said.

“We have had hard times in this town, in this state,” he said. “(This year) the Legislature has been digging a hole, burying us in the prejudice of the past, hanging out a sign that says, ‘Closed for business,’” he said. “In the capitol, it is 1957, but on the bluffs of Natchez, it is 2016.”

Before the victory rally kicked into full gear, the Rev. Birdon Mitchell opened it with a prayer that alluded in part to Grennell’s campaign slogan, “All for one.”

“Bless him that his campaign slogan will be fulfilled,” Mitchell prayed.

A total of 2,827 votes were cast in Tuesday’s election, meaning 29.77 percent of the city’s 9,495 registered voters cast ballots.

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