Dolton Trustee Jason House declared victory Tuesday night over incumbent Mayor Tiffany Henyard Tuesday night in the Democratic primary.
With all 17 precincts reporting, House had 3,896 votes, or 88%,to 536 votes for Henyard, according to the Cook County clerk’s office. The winner of the mayoral primary will face Independent candidate Casundra Hopson-Jordan in the April 1 election.
“The community spoke loud and clear tonight,” House told supporters. “We faced four years of intimidation, four years of failure.”
“Today marks an end to a dark day in Dolton,” he said. “Today marks the first day of the future.”
While a closely watched race and one that was expected to draw a large number of voters to the poll in the Democratic primary, turnout was a bit more than 24% of Dolton’s 16,506 registered voters, according to the clerk’s office.
Trustee candidates running with House also fared well. Three trustee seats were in play in the primary.
Incumbent Trustee Brittney Norwood led a field of seven trustee candidates with 3,554 votes, while Trustee Kiana Belcher had 3,414 and former trustee Edward “Ed” Steave with 3,335 votes, according to unofficial results.
Steave lost his bid for reelection last year.
The trustee candidates running with Henyard were well behind, with Joslyn King at 653 votes, Linda Terrell at 618, and Vanessa R. Wesco with 536 votes, unofficial results show.
Charles Rayburn, running for trustee unaffilliated with either slate, had 375 votes.
Incumbent Village Clerk Alison Key, running on the House slate, had 3,490 votes in her race, compared to 871 for challenger Tannika Hughes.
Vincent D. Johnson / for the Daily Southtown
Unofficial vote totals show Dolton Mayor Tiffany Henyard lagging challenger Jason House. (Vincent D. Johnson / for Daily Southtown)
Trustees running with House thanked the community for their support and expressed hope that a page had been turned.
“This is about doing the right thing for the town we live in,” Steave told supporters.
“Every little piece to the puzzle made us whole,” Norwood said of community support. “This win is for everyone here. We’re going to make you all proud.”
Acknowledging the struggle with Henyard and fighting that took place between the mayor and trustees, Belcher said she and fellow trustees often felt defeated.
“It only made us come together, it only made us stand together,” she said.
Longtime Dolton resident Dan Lee said he was pleased with the outcome.
“The will of the people has been met,” he said after unofficial vote totals were announced to a room full of supporters. “We are definitely on our way.”
Lee, however, said much has to be done to restore the village’s reputation and fragile financial condition.
“This is a big step, but we have a lot more to do,” he said.
Thornton Township Trustee Christopher Gonzalez said the results showing House’s lead were overwhelming.
“The people spoke, louder than I expected,” he said. “They yelled.”
Gonzalez said that, when Henyard was first elected, “she had all the ingredients for success, but she did everything the opposite.”
“At the beginning she had the board and it should have been about working together, working things out,” he said.
House initially supported and ran with Henyard in 2021. Also running with Henyard were trustee candidates Kiana Belcher and Brittney Norwood, and clerk candidate Alison Key, all of whom were elected.
Henyard would describe the group as a “dream team.”
House’s seat as a trustee was up for election, so he would have been off the Village Board if defeated in his mayoral bid.
Trustee Andrew Holmes was reelected last year, as was Trustee Tammie Brown. Stanley Brown was elected to his first term and is not up for reelection.
Henyard has been under federal investigation since at least last spring, when subpoenas were delivered to Dolton Village Hall and Thornton Township offices. Henyard is township supervisor but faces a challenge in getting elected to a full term, having been blocked from being part of the Democratic primary for the job.
House and other trustees have alleged financial mismanagement on the part of Henyard’s administration, and hired former Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot to act as a special investigator, probing village finances, amng other tasks.
Presented to the public in two segments, Lightfoot’s report showed the village went from having healthy budget balances to a multimillion-dollar deficit since Henyard was elected mayor.
Her report also uncovered expensive trips taken by Henyard and her allies, including visits to a conference in Las Vegas that was intended to bring back business opportunities for Dolton. Henyard said there was no evidence the two Vegas trips produced any tangible economic benefits for the village.
Henyard’s relationship with trustees she ran with quickly soured after their election, with trustees accusing her of being secretive in how public funds were being spent. The mayor and trustees openly squabbled during Village Board meetings, and Henyard did not attend the last two board meetings prior to the primary election.
Along with her relationship with fellow board members, Henyard’s support among Dolton residents also took a nosedive.
In June 2022, Dolton voters approved two referendum questions; one that established a recall mechanism to remove the mayor from office and the second to recall Henyard. Both measures passed with 56% of the vote.
Henyard had challenged the constitutionality of the recall questions in a lawsuit, and a state appellate court would later declare votes cast in the recall were invalid.
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