Upsets, Runoffs, Mark Anderson County Primary Race

Greg Wilson/Anderson Observer

Two primary races will be decided in runoffs, after Republican candidates in the S.C. House Dist. 9 and U.S. House Dist. 3 contests failed to produce a candidate with 50 percent of the vote.

In the S.C. House Dist. 9 race, Blake Sanders and James Galyean were neck-and-neck with around 40 percent of the vote (as of 10 p.m. no official result numbers), and in the U.S. House Dist. 3 race to fill Jeff Duncan’s seat, Mark Burns will face Sheri Biggs in a runoff. Burns received 35.72 percent of the vote, 8,195 votes, and Biggs 33.24 percent, or 5,842.

In the Democratic race for U.S. House Rep. 3, Byron L. Best defeated Frances Guldner and will run against the Biggs/Best runoff winner. Best took 931, or 60.61 percent of the 1,536 votes cast in this race.

Sanders received 41.66 percent of the vote, 1852 votes, to Galyean’s 38.78 percent, or 1,763 votes. Rick Bradshaw, received the remaining 551 votes in this race.

The runoff is scheduled for June 25, with early voting available June 19-21 from 8:30 a.m.-5 p.m. at the Anderson County Election Office, 301 N Main Street in Anderson and the Powdersville Branch Library, 4 Civic Court in Powdersville.

Incumbent S.C. Rep. Don Chapman with 56.17 percent of the vote, 2,748 votes, defeated Sherry Hodges who got 43.83 percent of the vote, or 2,144 votes.

It was a big night for the Freedom Caucus in the Anderson County Republican primary, with incumbent S.C. Rep. April Cromer holding onto her Dist. 6 seat in a narrow win over Kyle White, incumbent S.C. Rep. Thomas Beach easily defeated challenger Pam Anthony in Dist. 10, and Lee Gilreath defeating incumbent S.C. Rep. Jay West.

Cromer took 55.83 percent of the vote, 3,150 to White’s 44.17 percent, or 2,492 votes.

Beach won with 66.13 percent, or 1,851 votes, over Pam Anthony who received 33,87 percent, or 948 votes.

Newcomer Gilreath won 64.34 percent of the vote in the S.C. House 7 race, with 2,703 votes, compared to West’s 35.66 percent, or 1.498 votes.

In other races, Anderson County Council Vice Chairman Brett Sanders held onto his Dist. 4 seat against challenger Dave Shalaby and Anderson County Council Chairman Tommy Dunn narrowly won his Dist. 5 race against Robert Tony McCurry.

Sanders finished with 54.67 percent of the vote, 2,428 votes, to Shalaby’s 45.33 percent, 2,013 votes.

Dunn won with 51.23 percent of the vote, 1,899 votes, to McCurry’s 48.77 percent, 1,808 votes.

incumbent Coroner Greg Shore easily defeated challenger James Hayes, Shore’s 15,589 votes, 69.62 percent represented the largest margin of victory of the night. Challenger Hayes had 6,802 votes, or 30,38 percent.

Micah Black walked away with the second largest margin of victory in the race to fill the open 10th Circuit Solicitor position. Black got 15,404 votes, which represented 67.4 percent of votes cast in this race.

Voter turnout was 20.45 percent for the primary in Anderson County.