Derrick Leon Davis finally won a long-coveted seat on the Prince George’s County Council in a special election on Tuesday, and will replace Leslie Johnson as the council member representing District 6, which covers Upper Marlboro, District Heights and Mitchellville.
Davis, the chairman of the Maryland Automobile Insurance Fund, easily defeated the Republican challenger, businesswoman Day Gardner, with more than 91 percent of the vote.
After running unsuccessfully against Johnson in September 2010, the vacated seat gave Davis and 13 other Democratic hopefuls a second opportunity. But it was Davis who ultimately rose to the top after garnering support from a variety of local and state politicians, including County Executive Rushern Baker and a number of County Council members.
Davis won 4,004 votes at the polls, while Gardner mustered just 389 in the overwhelmingly Democratic county.
Johnson resigned in July after pleading guilty to conspiring to tamper with witnesses and evidence in an FBI investigation of pay-to-play schemes in the county. She admitted to stuffing $79,600 in cash in her bra and underwear and flushing a $100,000 check down the toilet at the instruction of her husband, then-County Executive Jack Johnson.
Her sentencing is scheduled for Dec. 9.
