MANSFIELD — Kelly Blankenship said the primary campaign broke her.
Literally.
But she still won.
Despite breaking her left ankle while putting out campaign signs on March 26, Blankenship rolled to a victory on Tuesday in the Republican Party race to be Mansfield’s next finance director.
Blankenship, who served a term as the finance director from 2007 to 2011, earned 65 percent of the vote, according to final, unofficial totals from the Richland Count Board of Elections.
Blankenship received 1,712 votes to defeat political newcomer and current city parks and recreation department superintendent Mark Abrams, who earned 922 votes.
She advances to the general election against Democrat Jon Van Harlingen, a former member of Mansfield City Council and a retired city worker. Van Harlingen received 1,348 votes on Tuesday.
“Breaking my ankle made everything come to a halt,” Blankenship said Tuesday evening. “Being immobile makes everything you do in life exponentially more difficult.”
It make knocking on doors, a local campaign staple, virtually impossible.
“I was hoping everyone was paying attention as we spoke at various venues and I laid out my experience and education and that I was the better candidate,” she said.
A 52-year-old resident of 895 Andover Road, Blankenship earned a bachelor’s degree in business with an emphasis on accounting from Coastal Carolina University in 1999.
For the last five years, Blankenship has been the executive director of the local homeless shelter Wayfinders Ohio, formerly the Harmony House.
Her ankle required surgery and Blankenship is still on the mend.
“I am going to have to run a more vigorous race this fall,” she said. “In the primary, I was trying to convince Republicans. In November, I have to convince the city that I am the better candidate.
“Not only have I been the finance director, every other job I have held have encompassed the same financial and leadership skills,” she said.
