You are going through unforeseen episodes in your life and guessing what will happen going forward. While it is an unknown when our elections will happen moving forward, I’m here to guide you through who the candidates and issues are – today, for races for the SC House. The South Carolina Primary elections are scheduled for June 9th and the runoffs for the 23rd. Sorry fans, if I didn’t mention a race you’re interested in, it means it wasn’t a tossup district or there doesn’t seem to be much of a challenge to the incumbent.
The filing period for all elections in the state started on March 16th and seemed slow and that candidates weren’t interested, but during the final four hours of the deadline on March 30th, fireworks occurred. Let’s start with primary’s in the state house, particularly, incumbents, who face a tougher road ahead.
SC Representative Jonathon Hill, R-Anderson, District 8, is a solid conservative leading in pro-life, economic and family values legislation in the SC House. The Republican Legislative Caucus booted him from membership last year because of his strong liberty stance. Ironically, the positions Hill takes are traditionally Republican platform planks.
In the Upstate, Rep. Jonathan Hill (R-Anderson) has staked his claim as being one of the most principled members of the State House. Hill has been a down-the-line conservative and has focused on legislative rules, much to the dismay of a lot of fellow legislators. After a controversial procedural move, Hill was expelled from the House GOP. This move built momentum among detractors and, unsurprisingly, Hill has drawn opposition in his heavily Republican seat. Republican challengers Vaughn D Parfitt and Mike Holden as well as Alliance candidate Jackie Todd are making hard runs at Hill. Hill did face a tough primary challenge in 2018 and won fairly easily.
In Greenville County’s District 18, Rep. Tommy Stringer has been popular and seems to be taking on a strong challenger in the GOP Primary in Sam Manley, a Republican activist who is experienced in security and law enforcement.
In District 35, straddling the border of Greenville and Spartanburg Counties, incumbent Rep. Bill Chumley, who has been considered a conservative member of the house, has strong challenges from fellow Republicans Garey Collins and Chris Bennett, a local school board member.
Pickens County has two hotly-contested house races. In District 3, Gary Clary is retiring from his strongly Republican district. School Board Trustee and former County GOP Chairman Phillip Bowers, Community Activist Jerry Carter and William Masters are running in the GOP Primary.
In District 5, incumbent Neal Collins faces another tough test to retain his seat. He faces Allan Quinn and David Cox, the same opponents from two years ago who forced Collins to a runoff. Collins, who has faced opposition in his staunchly conservative district on some issues, easily dispatched Quinn in the primary runoff in 2018.
On the coast of the state, changing demographics and retirements are a mix for and interesting 2020.
In District 118, in Beaufort and Jasper Counties, a donnybrook has broken out between incumbent Rep. Bill Herbkersman and fellow Republican, Beaufort County Councilman Michael Covert. Covert, who dropped his bid against first-term Democratic Congressman Joe Cunningham, promises to run as a more conservative member of the state house with endorsements from several Liberty Caucus members. Democrat Mitch Siegel is also running in the strongly GOP district.
In Hilton Head-based District 123, Rep. Jeff Bradley and Phil Hartman will have a rematch of the narrow victory by Bradley in the 2018 primary. The 2018 election focused largely on education issues, which date back to several corruption issues in the Beaufort County education system.
In District 100 of Berkeley and Dorchester Counties, an expected rematch of Republicans Rep. Sylleste Davis and Tom Fernandez is taking place. The strong GOP district features Davis and Fernandez, who has built his brand on government transparency.
Rep. Bill Chumley, R-Dist 35 has traditionally had a conservative House voting record protecting family and societal values, including pro-life, anti-pornography bills and heritage issues for many years.
District 110 on the coast of Charleston will prove to be a test of the changing demographics and environmental philosophy of its constituents. Incumbent Republican William Coggswell faces Charleston GOP officer and Iranian immigrant Rouzy Zafaie in the GOP Primary. Democrats Rebecca Niess Cingolani and Lelia Slater await the winner of the primary in the district that is one of the lowcountry’s districts that appear to be gaining more Democrats.
District 115 on the Charleston coast will prove to be one of the most competitive in the state. Rep. Peter McCoy was just appointed as acting US Attorney for South Carolina by President Trump, so this seat will create a special election in addition to the primary and general elections. McCoy won re-election by a narrow margin in 2018 and this race will be covered in a piece that will be covered by The Standard in an upcoming piece.
Horry County incumbents will face several strong challenges coming up. Incumbent Republican Kevin Hardee faces tough competition in the face of allegations of compromised proxy voting will face Republican activist Steve Robertson.
Longtime incumbent Republican Alan Clemmons faces a challenge from attorney Case Brittain, who has planned the challenge for a long time.
In the Midlands, there aren’t many House primaries to keep an eye on, but there are a couple.
In Lexington, Rep. Mac Toole is retiring from District 88 in the heavily Republican South Central part of the county. The primary consists of only Republicans and most have political experience. Former county council candidate Brian Duncan, evangelist John Lastinger, former congressional candidate Eddie McCain, political consultant and former Executive Director of the Club for Growth RJ May and former School Board Trustee and senate candidate Mike Sturkie have filed for the race that is sure to result in a runoff.
In Richland, longtime Democrat Rep. Jimmy Bales faces a stiff challenge in his party’s primary in lower Richland and Kershaw counties. Community activist, Dr. Jermaine Johnson has put forth a strong campaign to unseat the veteran lawmaker.
Once again, we don’t even know when this primary will take place, but this doesn’t mean you don’t need to take notice today.
Preston Baines is a Political and Policy Consultant from Chapin. He can be reached at @prestonbaines on Twitter and prestonbaines@gmail.com.
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