Brashear wins four-person Rogers council race

ROGERS — Mandy McDonald Brashear won a spot on the City Council after winning more votes than three other candidates Tuesday.

Brashear ran for the Ward 1, Position 1 seat on the council. Ward 1 is in the northeast part of the city and includes downtown.

Shawn Wright, Rick Stocker and Clint Hopper also sought the seat.

A candidate in a municipal election with more than two challengers can win outright with a majority, which is 50 percent plus one vote, or get 40 percent of the vote and be ahead of the second-closest candidate by 20 percent.

The complete but unofficial vote totals were:

Brashear . . . . 6,519 (47%) Wright . . . . . . 2,855 (21%) Hopper . . . . . . 2,253 (16%) Stocker . . . . . . 2,152 (16%)

Buddy Wright, Shawn Wright’s father, has served in the Ward 1, Position 1 seat since 2002. He didn’t seek re-election.

Council members serve a four-year term and earn an annual salary of $9,511.

Brashear, 37, moved to Rogers from Joplin, Mo., in 2006 and has said she can represent people who are moving to Rogers from other areas. Investing in infrastructure such as traffic flow and sewer lines is her priority given the city’s growing population.

She also said fostering inclusion in the city and having well-trained and staffed police and fire departments are important to her, noting as the population continues to grow there will be more 911 calls.

Rogers’ population grew from 54,869 people in 2007 to an estimated 66,430 in 2017, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

Brashear works in human resources at Walmart Inc.

Wright, 40, is a lifelong Rogers resident and a homemaker.

Stocker, 65, has lived in Rogers for 55 years. He worked for the city for a cumulative of 25 years and retired in 2016 as the parks and recreation director.

Hopper, 39, is a lifelong Rogers resident. He works in information technology at Crafton Tull.

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