Beaufort City Council’s newest member was elected Tuesday. Here’s who won
Mike McFee won Tuesday’s special election, earning a fourth term on Beaufort City Council, according to unofficial results that included 12 of the city’s 15 precincts.
McFee defeated Fred White and Brantley Wilson gaining 65.45% of the votes reported by 9 p.m.
White had 14.93% and Wilson had 19.04%, separated by only 43 votes.
In total, 1,045 votes were cast, including about 200 absentee ballots ahead of Tuesday, representing 11.33% of the 9,234 registered voters in Beaufort’s city limits.
McFee’s term, which is the remainder of Mayor Stephen Murray’s term he vacated when elected in November, begins March 9 and lasts through November 2022. McFee will join other council members Philip Cromer, Neil Lipsitz and Mitch Mitchell.
The Beaufort City Council is made up of four council members and a mayor, all elected at-large to four-year terms. All have the same voting power during regular public meetings. The council sets city policy, passes an annual budget, guides planning priorities and oversees the city manager to carry out directives and day-to-day city operations.
McFee previously served on council for 12 years. He was first elected in 2008, then again in 2012 and 2016, before losing reelection by less than 100 votes in November, when he was the sole incumbent in a pool of six candidates.
McFee, 61, served four terms on Beaufort City Council from 2008 to 2020, including as mayor pro tem from 2014 to 2020. He’s a Beaufort High School and University of South Carolina graduate and became a real estate broker before joining Home Town Realty in 1991. McFee has served on the USCB Small Business Advisory Commission, is past chairman of the Palmetto chapter of the American Red Cross and chairman of the board of the Alzheimer’s Family Services of Greater Beaufort. He is a past president of the Greater Beaufort Chamber of Commerce.
