Mayor Teresa Heitmann kept her mayoral seat by a slim 12 votes in a neck-and-neck race against former Vice Mayor Gary Price.

Heitmann garnered 3,257 votes, while Price won 3,245 votes, according to the unofficial election results from all seven city precincts. Heitmann garnered 38.1% of the vote to Price’s 37.9%. Price said he’ll demand a recount.

Council member Ted Blankenship, the third mayoral contender, won 2,044 votes, according to the final results posted by the Collier County Supervisor of Elections.

Heitmann, who was surrounded by more than 100 family members, friends and supporters at her Aqualane Shores home, said she was confident that once ballots are examined she’d win – and possibly garner even more votes.

“But it was close,” Heitmann said. “Of course, it was a three-way race and could have gone any way. Even though it was close, I think our community really spoke out. They worked very hard.”

“They were there every day, at every polling place,” she added. “We didn’t pay one person to volunteer. This was a grassroots effort. Our community really supported our campaign, our leadership, moving forward and making Naples just Naples in the perfect and simple elegance that it is.”

Her first order of business Wednesday is to thank all her supporters and head to City Hall, where she’ll thank city staff. “This city staff is truly the heartbeat of the community so I’m going to thank them for serving the city and I look forward to working with them for the next four years on behalf of our community,” Heitmann said.

In the six-way race for three open Council seats, Bill Kramer won 4,277 votes, former Council member Linda Penniman garnered 4,160 and Berne Barton earned 3,677 votes. They edged out Tony Perez-Benitoa, who won 3,644 votes, Nicholas Del Rosso with 3,372 votes, and Garey Cooper, who trailed with 1,894 votes.

Former President Donald Trump overwhelmingly won the Republican Presidential Preference Primary, while Nikki Hailey, who backed out of the race, earned 12.9% of the vote.