Here's who's leading in the SC House race to represent Hilton Head

With all the votes apparently counted late Tuesday, the Republican primary to decide who will have the chance to represent House District 123 in Columbia remained close.

State Rep. Jeff Bradley, R-Hilton Head Island, faced a challenge from Phil Hartman in the Republican primary to represent Hilton Head in the Statehouse.

With 100 percent of the precincts counted as of about 6:30 a.m. Wednesday, Bradley led by 108 votes. Hartman had 2,195 (49 percent), while Bradley had 2,303 (51 percent).

The winner will run against Democrat Mario Martinez in November.

Bradley, a financial adviser who has lived on Hilton Head more than 30 years, has touted his civic experience in seeking to continue representing the district covering Hilton Head and Daufuskie islands. He founded the Hilton Head Island GED camp and serves as a trustee for Community Foundation of the Lowcountry, Technical College of the Lowcountry Foundation and the S.C. Commission of Higher Education.

Bradley is an advocate of school choice, having been honored by the Public Charter School Alliance of South Carolina as its legislator of the year earlier this month, and had also pledged to cut taxes and reform the state pension system.

Hartman is a former longtime schools administrator from Michigan who moved to Hilton Head full-time almost a decade ago.

He supported state pension reform, according to his website, and also targeted “waste, fraud and abuse” in the state education system.

On his Facebook page, Hartman had criticized Bradley for the number of political action committees and businesses that gave money to Bradley's campaign.

This story was originally published June 12, 2018 at 8:36 PM with the headline "Here's who's leading in the SC House race to represent Hilton Head."