Tag Archives: east ward winston-salem

How Youth Was Served in East Winston

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Yesterday I wrote about the 21 year old Winston-Salem State University student Derwin Montgomery who won the Democratic primary and likely the council seat the East Ward of Winston-Salem since there's no Republican candidate.  The Winston-Salem Journal has an article about how he did it.  Please note that he didn't just do this on a whim and that some real strategy and planning went into his effort:

Montgomery, who had been running his campaign more or less alone, started delegating responsibility to fellow students. He had a "director of compliance" who helped WSSU students register to vote in Forsyth County. He had a "director of transportation" who organized vehicles to drive students to the board of elections so they could cast early ballots. He had two administrative assistants.

It paid off in a big way. A total of 440 people cast ballots for Montgomery in early voting, including 211 students at Winston-Salem State who were newly registered. That's more than the total number of people who voted in three of the other six primary races.

Youth is Served in Winston-Salem

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Looks like the east side of Winston-Salem is going to have a city council member who's barely old enough to drink legally:

Derwin Montgomery, a 21-year-old Winston-Salem State University senior, defeated Democratic incumbent Joycelyn Johnson for the East Ward seat on the Winston-Salem City Council during the Democratic primary Tuesday.

Montgomery garnered 530 votes or 57 percent of the votes cast in the East Ward. Johnson received 228 votes or 24 percent of the votes cast in the municipal primary. With no Republican challenger, Montgomery becomes one of the youngest city council members in recent history.

Montgomery attributed his success to the more than 400 Winston-Salem State students who supported his candidacy and participated in early voting, which concluded on Saturday, Sept. 12.

He sounds like an impressive young man: Deans Scholar, Youth Minister at Calvary Baptist, first VP for NAACP's Youth & College Division and he's planning on enrolling at Wake Forest U next fall in the dual degree program for law school and divinity school. 

Let's see, what was I doing at 21?  Well, on any given day I could find the best happy hour in town based on the criteria that buying one beer for $1 could get you access to an all you can eat taco bar.  That's huge when you're 21 and broke, or 23 and broke for that matter.  Other than that I was pretty much worthless.

Congrats to Mr. Montgomery and here's hoping he lives up to his potential.