Police veteran JoJo Woodward launches 3rd bid for Beaufort County Sheriff
A former sheriff’s office captain and repeat challenger against longtime Beaufort County Sheriff P.J. Tanner has announced his third bid to become the county’s top law enforcement officer.
Joey “JoJo” Woodward Jr., a resident of Bluffton, filed to run for sheriff as a Republican on Monday afternoon, according to a campaign filing.
“Change is coming!” Woodward wrote in a Facebook post Sunday, asking residents which issues in policing and public safety mattered most to them — from traffic and violent crime to accountability and a purported “soaring” budget.
This will be Woodward’s third consecutive campaign for sheriff, and his first without Tanner also on the ballot.
After a nearly three-decade tenure, Tanner announced earlier this month he was not seeking reelection later this year. He intends to make an endorsement in the race after the candidate filing period ends in late March, the sheriff said.
In their past matchups, Tanner and Woodward sparred over fiscal transparency in the sheriff’s office and what Woodward described as the department’s lackluster relationship with the 14th Circuit Solicitor’s Office, which serves as the region’s chief prosecuting agency.
After earning about 45% of the votes in his first unsuccessful campaign against Tanner in 2018, Woodward joined the solicitor’s office as an investigator in its Career Criminal Unit. He lost to Tanner again in a 2022 rematch, capturing about 38% of the vote.
Doug Seifert, a 20-year veteran of the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office, was the first to join what would likely become a hotly contested race given Tanner’s absence. Per department policy, Seifert resigned from his role as lieutenant before filing to run as a Republican just minutes after the filing period opened March 16.
Woodward and Seifert — along with any other Republican challengers — will face off in the June 9 GOP primary, and the winner will advance to compete in the Nov. 3 general election. As of Monday, no sheriff candidates had filed as Democrats or independents.
The candidate filing period closes at noon on March 30 for sheriff and other races in South Carolina’s general election in November.
Woodward could not immediately be reached for questions on Monday.
Woodward’s history in policing
Woodward was born in Charleston and raised in Beaufort and Jasper counties. He briefly worked with Hilton Head Island Fire-Rescue before joining the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office in 1986, according to previous reporting by The Island Packet.
He then went on to work for the Hardeeville Police Department as a patrol and drug officer in 1991 before returning to the sheriff’s office in 1992 to work in investigations and drug enforcement.
Woodward was temporarily assigned to the Drug Enforcement Administration’s Beaufort office from 2000 to 2001 and returned to the sheriff’s office in 2005 to serve as commander of the Beaufort/Jasper multi-agency drug task force. He was promoted to captain in 2013, eventually resigning in 2018 for his first campaign against Tanner.
In 2021, Woodward became the co-chair of the Lowcountry Human Trafficking Task Force, according to the S.C. Attorney General’s website.
This story was originally published March 23, 2026 at 12:24 PM.
