Meridian voters will choose a new mayor on June 8.

Jimmie Smith defeated incumbent Percy Bland in Tuesday’s Democratic runoff, which means that Bland will depart the mayor’s post on July 1.

Smith heads to the general election, where he will face Robert J. Ray, a Republican, and current Ward 5 council member Weston Lindemann, an Independent.

In Tuesday’s race, Smith won 3,229 votes, or 57.7%, while Bland won 2,364 votes, or 42.3%, according to preliminary results. Voter turnout for the race was approximately 28%.

On Wednesday, Smith thanked members of the community for their support and prayers. He said a multitude of people were praying for him during the mayoral race. He is feeling “grateful and humble,” he said.

“The next step is to re-visit what we’ve done before,” he said, “and focus on what we’ve got to do in the future as far as the race is concerned.”

Smith, who described himself as honest and hard-working, plans to continue visiting voters door-to-door during his campaign.

“I’m going to work hard for the city,” he stated. “I’m going to make sure that we concentrate on what the people of this community want to see. And I think part of it is that they want our city clean. They want the streets paved, and we’re going to look at all of that.”

Smith had previously run for mayor in 2005, but lost the race to John Robert Smith.

Born in Chicago, Smith moved to Meridian as a teenager and has spent all of his adult life in the Queen City. When he first arrived in Meridian, he worked at Anderson Regional Medical Center and Rush Health Systems.

He then joined Meridian Police Department, where he had stints in the patrol division, the detective division and the SWAT Team. He then served Lauderdale County as a supervisor for 20 years. Smith went on to work for a bonding company called Government Consultants before retiring a few years ago.

Smith’s opponent, Bland, will depart the mayor’s post after two terms.

“It’s not the outcome that we wanted, but the voters spoke,” Bland said Wednesday. “And I’m glad at the accomplishments that my team and we have done over the last eight years.”

He hopes that the next mayor will build off of his team’s accomplishments. During Bland’s tenure, the Mississippi Children’s Museum-Meridian was created, the Mississippi Arts + Entertainment Experience opened and city employees’ pay increased.

Bland said his next steps are to be “a husband and a dad.”