Mayoral candidate Brian Strow walked into the Warren County Courthouse wearing bright orange, the international color of reform.

He let out a deep sigh and shook his head, then smiled.

“What do you want to do right now?” asked a broadcast news reporter near the door.

“I’m trying to concede,” he said, laughing. “I’m trying to quit.”

Strow, an associate professor of economics at Western, did just that about two hours before the final votes came in.

The Warren County Clerk’s Office’s unofficial results showed Mayor Elaine Walker with 10,548 votes and Strow with 7,376 votes.

“Predominately, I’m disappointed because I felt like I have something to offer voters in regard to watching their money and government transparency,” Strow said.

But the percentage of votes he received allowed him to reach one of his goals.

Strow got 41.2 percent of the total vote, according to the county clerk’s office. He said wanted to break at least 40 percent to close the gap from the mayoral primaries.

“The door has been closed, and now I’m expecting a window to appear,” Strow said in his concession speech. “That’s been the history of my life.”

Strow started looking for that window as soon as the absentee ballots came in at about 6 p.m., he said.

At that point, he was losing 344 votes to 541, enough to project the night’s final result, he said.

Tucker, the oldest of Strow’s three children, received early hints of his father’s defeat as well.

“We let Tucker eat some chocolate covered strawberries that he may not have eaten otherwise,” Strow said. They were intended for a cancelled victory party.

Commissioner Brian “Slim” Nash said he would miss the great working relationship he had with Strow.

“We didn’t always agree politically, but we made sure our political disagreements never became personal” Nash said. “I wish that was always the case.”

Nash said Strow has a valuable understanding of economics and finance that served the commission well.

Shelbyville junior Nathan Salazar said he voted for Strow because of this knowledge.

“I’d expect someone with a Ph.D. in economics to have a good understanding of it,” he said.

Salazer said Strow’s defeat was disappointing, but not surprising. Uninformed voters may have given their vote to Walker just because she’s the incumbent, he said.

But Strow said he may return to his career in government someday.

“I want to make the world a better place or die trying,” he said.

Reach Mandy Simpson at news@chherald.com.