South Carolina voters headed to the polls Tuesday, and the election results produced several closely watched races, two statewide runoffs, and a few surprises across the state.
The race for the Republican nomination for governor remains undecided and is now headed to a runoff after none of the candidates secured a majority of the vote.
With 89% of precincts reporting Tuesday night, Pamela Evette led the field with 29.3% of the vote, followed by Alan Wilson at 26.0%.
Ralph Norman finished third with 15.6%. Norman told supporters it appeared he had “come up short,” although he had not formally conceded Tuesday night.
Rom Reddy received 14.2%, while Nancy Mace finished with 12.3% and conceded the race.
While Norman fell short in the governor’s race, he topped a separate community poll conducted by the Move Silfab movement. He received the most votes as the person most responsible for bringing the controversial Silfab Solar project to Fort Mill.
On the Democratic side, Jermaine Johnson won his party’s nomination with 59.3% of the vote. He defeated Billy Webster and Mullins McLeod and will advance to the November election.
The Republican primary for South Carolina attorney general also failed to produce a winner and will move to a runoff. Stephen Goldfinch led with 40%, followed by David Stumbo at 36% and David Pascoe at 24%.
One of the most closely watched local legislative races was House District 26, where incumbent David Martin held off challenger Elizabeth Enns after a night of shifting results.
Martin finished with 54% of the vote compared to 46% for Enns, winning by roughly 350 votes out of 4,488 cast.
In Fort Mill, incumbent Debi Cloninger defeated challenger Scott Couchenour in the Republican primary for York County Council District 7.
Cloninger received 62% of the vote with 2,758 votes, while Couchenour earned 38% with 1,698 votes.
The results set the stage for several high-profile runoff elections in the coming weeks as South Carolina voters continue shaping the state’s political landscape ahead of November.
