CARMEL, Ind. — Carmel City Councilor Sue Finkam has won the Republican primary to be the city's next mayor.
Finkam defeated Kevin Rider and Fred Glynn to win the GOP nomination. Another city councilor, Miles Nelson, ran unopposed for the Democratic nomination.
Finkam collected 36% of the vote in the closely contested race, in which less than 600 votes separated all three candidates.
Carmel Mayor Jim Brainard announced last year that he would not seek an eighth term in office. He was elected in 1995 and will have served 28 years when the new mayor takes office.
Finkam was elected to the Carmel City Council in 2012 and twice served as president. She serves as vice president of the Hamilton County Solid Waste Management board, among other leadership positions she has held, according to her bio on the Carmel city website.
She also runs Fire Starter LLC, a company she founded which provides marketing and public relations expertise to mission-based organizations.
Nelson was elected to the council in 2019. He is the president of AOI, an executive search firm in Carmel.