LEXINGTON, Ky. -- Voters in Lexington, Kentucky's second-largest city, have elected the city's first openly gay mayor.

Businessman Jim Gray defeated incumbent Jim Newberry in Tuesday's nonpartisan election. Gray had 53 percent of the vote to Newberry's 46 percent with 79 percent of precincts reporting.

The 57-year-old Gray is an executive with his family's construction company. He has been the city's vice mayor. Gray and Newberry, a 54-year-old lawyer, both grew up in Barren County.

Gray told supporters he wanted to represent every citizen of Lexington-Fayette County, which merged governments in 1974 and is the heart of Kentucky's horse country and home to the University of Kentucky.

He says: "I am here for my mother's generation, I am here for my generation and for your generation, and we are here for the next generation."