Joe Fuentes has defeated Melinda Lincoln-Richardson for the Powhatan seat on the Williamsburg-James City County School Board.
Fuentes picked up 3,114 votes compared to Lincoln-Richardson’s 1,052 votes, giving him 74.28 percent of the total compared to Lincoln-Richardson’s 25.10 percent. There were 26 write-in candidates in the election, accounting for 0.62 percent of the votes.
The Powhatan District had 41.87 percent of its registered voters cast ballots for this election.
Fuentes, who has been on the school board for eight years, has been a resident of the area for more than 30 years. He has lived in the Powhatan District for more than 24 years. The 54-year-old is married with two grown daughters who attended Williamsburg-James City County schools.
After recent redistricting, Fuentes’ home in the Powhatan District was shifted into the Jamestown District. Once the new map was drawn, Fuentes and Jim Kelly were both residents of the new Jamestown District, which Kelly went on to represent. Fuentes moved earlier this year to run for the Powhatan seat again.
He is employed by NAVSEA as a branch head, where he works with nuclear engineering and testing. He previously worked for Newport News Shipbuilding for more than 22 years. Fuentes is a veteran of the U.S. Air Force and was a member of the Board of Trustees for New Horizons Regional Education Center in 2005 and 2006. He has a Bachelor of Science in electrical engineering and a Master of Engineering in engineering management.
Lincoln-Richardson is a 65-year-old who is retired from the U.S. Department of Education, where she was a Senior Assistant Ombudsman. She also worked as a Senior Policy Advisor with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the Office of Civil Rights and Liberties. She is currently a professor of communication with the University of Maryland University College and Thomas Nelson Community College’s Historic Triangle branch. She is married with six adult children.
