Kevin Phillips unseats Joe DeVito in Port Royal’s mayoral contest. ‘I couldn’t be happier’

Kevin Phillips has won the mayoral race in Port Royal, unseating incumbent Joe DeVito by a 60% to 40% margin, according to unofficial results from the Secretary of State’s website.

Phillips had 628 votes to DeVito’s 411 votes. The total votes cast were 1,041. A handful of write-in ballots were submitted.

“I’m sunburned, dirty, exhausted, but couldn’t be happier or more proud of Port Royal and the people of Port Royal,” Phillips told The Beaufort Gazette and Island Packet at about 9:30 p.m. at an election night party, which followed 13 hours of campaigning.

Newcomer Jorge Guerrero and Councilman Jerry Ashmore also won two uncontested seats on the Town Council.

Guerrero had 645 votes and Ashmore, who won a third term, had 826.

Golf carts and vehicles were parked on the lawn of a Port Royal residence where Phillips family members and friends gathered to celebrate the victory with a keg of beer and conversation.

Phillips, a 41-year-old attorney who moved to the town in 2017, chalked up the win to an exhaustive six-week campaign that focused not just on one group of people or area of Port Royal, such as the downtown village near the waterfront, but all the city’s neighborhoods and people. The town’s residents, Phillips said, are diverse, ranging from retires to military residents to long-time residents and newcomers. He heard two themes: Residents felt as if they were not being heard, and they also are concerned about over-development.

“I believe in representative Democracy,” Phillips said.

In the mayoral race, DeVito, was looking for a second four-year term as mayor. He campaigned as a steady hand and experienced voice leading the town of 14,000, saying he wanted to continue his emphasis on getting the town’s infrastructure, including sidewalks, trails and storm water systems, up to speed.

Phillips, who was elected to the council in 2019, looked to shake things up. During the campaign, he called for a moratorium on development, arguing residents were concerned about too many apartment buildings and storage facilities being constructed.

Redevelopment of the town’s waterfront on Battery Creek loomed over the campaign, too. Residents aren’t happy with the plans or the transparency shown by developer Safe Harbor Marina. The voters also are angry at Safe Harbor for using an area where a new marina is planned to assemble docks that are being shipped to properties that the company manages elsewhere. Large cranes that mar the views are being used in that process.

Phillips said he did not like how Safe Harbor has treated the town since it bought the property two years ago. The town has been a good partner, he said, “and you can see how we’ve been treated.”

Two hours before the polls closed, Paris Avenue, the town’s main street, was chill as usual, with residents out enjoying 70-degree November weather on foot or in golf carts. Elsewhere, a few blocks from the polling place at Town Hall, Phillips and DeVito campaign supporters were camped out along the road holding signs and shouting to residents as they passed vehicles, golf carts or on foot, waging an 11th-hour battle for votes.

“I put a lot of time in,” said Phillips.

While many communities are trying to get people to move to their towns and often green light development, Port Royal has an abundance of resources and can say to developers, “We want you to be here, but you have to work with us,” he said after the election.

Just up the road, DeVito, wearing his own campaign shirt and holding an orange campaign sign, stood with supporters — including Scot Clark, who had been campaigning for DeVito since 7 a.m. He sat in a lawn chair as a passerby yelled “Go Joe!” Later, DeVito stooped to his knees to shake hands with a young child in a stroller whose mother stopped to chat.

DeVito, first elected as mayor four years ago, previously served as chairman of the Metropolitan Planning Commission and is former director of operations at Beaufort-Jasper Water and Sewer Authority. He is currently a senior manager of utility solutions with Badger Meter Inc.

Ashmore, the town councilman also on the ballot, was sandwiched between the warring DeVito and Phillips camps. A couple in a golf cart stopped to chat, asking his opinion on the mayoral race. Ashmore didn’t offer a prediction but had an observation.

“At the end of the day,” Ashmore said of Phillips and DeVito and the outcome of the race, “we’re going to lose a good one.”

Ashmore, 58, is the director of workforce development and safety with the Greenery, Inc. He has served on the council for 8 years.

Serving on the Port Royal Town Council isn’t about the money, Ashmore said during the campaign. He noted that council members work a lot of hours for about 35 cents an hour. He’s running, he said, because it is important to set an example for his children and grandchildren.

“I feel that we are called to serve others and I care about Port Royal,” Ashmore said.

Guerrero, the newly elected councilman who retired after a 23-year career in the U.S. Marines, is director of talent management and licensed agent for ERA Evergreen Real Estate Co.

The 43-year-old serves on the Town of Port Royal’s Accommodations Tax Committee. He also is a director on the Bridges Preparatory school board

He said he wanted to make sure that residents of the Shadow Moss, Picket Fences, Old Shell Point and Port Royal Landing and Willow Point areas were represented and “to be a voice for those who find themselves drowned out of conversations by citizens who speak louder than everyone else so that their issues are heard.”