Linda Kellerman has had a bizarre month.
Back in April she dropped out of the Democratic primary for the Guilford County Commissioners seat in District 6, citing the death of her daughter Michelle Hall and her need to grieve.
She publicly bowed out and though it wasn't in time to remove her name from the ballot, she endorsed opponent Dan Miller. She worked the polls for him the day of the May 8 primary.
But when the polls closed and the results came in on primary night, Kellerman got a shock.
She ended up with nearly 57 percent of the vote, beating Miller by more than 600 votes.
"I had no idea what to think," Kellerman said today. "I had to decide what it meant, I had to decide what I was going to do."
Having been elected by such a wide margin, there would be no runoff. If Kellerman said she no longer wanted to be the Democratic candidate, Miller wouldn't automatically get the nod. The local party would hand-pick a candidate for the Nov. 6 election.
After sitting down with Miller, Kellerman decided to move forward with her candidacy. She re-filed her candidate committee paperwork with the Guilford County Board of Elections today.
"I think voters may have seen a strong female candidate and wanted to support her," Kellerman said.
Her daughter and her mother, who died just last summer, would have told her that means she should press on with her candidacy, Kellerman said.
She'll face either Jeremy Williams or Hank Henning in November. The two Republican candidates are going into a runoff to be held July 17.