Borrowing a phrase from Kirk Franklin’s 2001 hit song, last Tuesday for most was definitely a ‘Lovely Day’ as Lovely Warren sealed her bid for Rochester’s highest office.

It was a sweet victory for Warren after a long drama-filled election process. She received 18,000 votes, 55% to beat out incumbent mayor Tom Richards who received 40% of the votes. Green Party candidate Alex White came in a distant third place with 5% of the votes.

Warren will become Rochester’s first female mayor and first African American female mayor and will by most accounts be the youngest to hold the post. But it was not an easy road. The race to the finish was filled with a lot of speculation and political positioning.

Warren was favored to win after her surprise defeat of Richards in the Democratic Primary on September 10. But although Richards ended his campaign shortly after, his name would still appear on the ballot under the Independent and Working Families party lines.

Feeling that Richards could still win in the general election, Richards’ supporters, including city employees, waged a campaign of their own against Warren. In the end, their efforts were unsuccessful.

“We never gave up, we kept the faith and to God be the Glory,” Warren said.

“I want to congratulate Lovely Warren on her victory tonight. We have already begun work on the transition and I have instructed senior staff—and I'm asking all City employees to do whatever it takes to ensure a smooth and cooperative transition process,” Mayor Richards said. “The job of mayor goes far beyond a single individual. It's now time for the entire community to come together and support the new Mayor and continue working to make our City great.”

Warren will assume office January 1, 2014.

Warren sat down with the Minority Reporter and discussed the road that brought her to victory.

MR: During the campaign you mentioned your faith quite frequently? What role does faith play in your life and how will it influence your decisions as mayor?

Well, I’ve always believed in God and I stepped out on faith by even running. I don’t believe that I would have won the race had it not been for God’s grace and His mercy. My faith will play a role by keeping me focused on always putting the community first and making sure that I continue to do what I believe God placed me here to do and that is to move the community forward.

MR: The campaign season was a tough one; and although the issue of race was never blatantly referred to it was definitely the ‘elephant in the room’. Do you believe because of the way the events of the campaign season turned out it created a divided Rochester? If so, how do we recover?

I think that in some ways there were people from the other campaign who tried to play that up in a subtle way; but when you look at the districts and the places that I won, I won across the city. I didn’t just win in African American neighborhoods. So, I think it shows that the entire community is ready to move forward and they are ready to move forward together.

MR: Was it always a dream of your to become mayor of Rochester? How and when did you begin to see the possibilities and what motivated you to run despite many who said it was not your time?

I remember being at an event in 1997 and the speaker was talking about how you have to visualize what your future will hold—and I was still in college at the time—so she went around the room and asked what do you aspire to be? I stood up then and I said I want to be mayor of the city of Rochester. Now fast forward to now, what I saw was a divided city one that is moving forward and one that is going down or staying the same. And, the gap was getting so wide, it was a chasm; and no matter what we tried to do legislatively there was nobody bridging the gap… At this point in time, I don’t believe that we could have waited four more years to focus on our challenges… to bring in the leadership that we need to move our community forward. Now, it’s not going to be something that happens overnight but I believe that many of our issues are small enough that if we focus on them we will be able to move the mark. I am prepared to putting my heart and soul into moving the mark when it comes to elevating our community.

MR: As you know your mentor and friend Assemblyman David Gantt is loved and respected by some in the community and despised by others. There are people who’ve even said they’re concerned that David Gantt will be running city hall. How do you address those concerns?

That issue was already addressed during my campaign; so, I’m not gonna address it walking into the door (at City Hall). The fact of the matter is that I ran my own campaign. For the past six years I’ve represented City Council well, for three years I’ve been president of City Council and I don’t think there is anything that anybody can say, well David Gantt made her do this or that. He is a leader in his own right and I’m a leader in my own right.

MR: In less than 2 months you will assume your post as the first African American female and possibly the youngest mayor in Rochester history. What do you want your legacy to be?

I want the community to be better across the board, when it comes to educating our children job development and bringing companies into the area. I want to build up the things that are great about our city. My focus will be selling the assets of Rochester… we have a lot of talent in Rochester. We need to develop and expand… and build upon the positive so the positives will overtake the negatives.