Robert “Robbie” McGhee won a run off election for the vice chairman’s seat for the Tribal Council of the Poarch Creek Indians on Aug. 4.

McGhee, the incumbent, beat Amy Bryan by 31 votes at 627-596, or by a 2.5 percent margin.

According to election officials, this was one of the largest run offs held. One-thousand-and-four-hundred voted during the general election, and 1,200 voted in the run off.

“I’m actually happy to win the election,” an excited and relieved McGhee said. “It was a close race. Amy did a great job of campaigning. She’s a fine woman. She put me to the test.

“I’m happy with the outcome, and I’m going to do my best to represent my people,” he said.

McGhee described the victory moment as great.

“When you have such a close vote like that, losing is possible, especially when I had such a high difference before,” he said. “It just hit me, like, ‘wow, this was close.’ In that moment, you can’t listen to anybody else. I told myself that ‘you’ve got this. You’ve got this.’”