As election nears, local candidates to face off at Beaufort forums. Here are the details
Two forums in Beaufort this week will feature candidates for City Council, County Council and state House seats as local races heat up three weeks prior to Nov. 8 election.
One forum is from 6-7:45 p.m. Wednesday at the University of South Carolina Beaufort Center for the Arts, 805 Carteret St. It’s sponsored by the Beaufort Regional Chamber of Commerce and USCB Center for the Arts. Chamber President Ian Scott will moderate it.
City Council candidates will answer questions from 6-6:55 p.m. and County Council candidates, from 7-7:45 p.m.
Five candidates are running for two seats on the City Council: Realtor Mike McFee; Josh Gibson, a freelance photographer and the former chairman of the Zoning Board of Appeals; Wilma Holman, a retiree who owned H & H Comprotax Beaufort, a tax preparation company, and also worked at the Beaufort County Black Chamber of Commerce; Josh Scallate, a lieutenant with the Lady’s Island St. Helena Fire District and Michael Andersen, who does business management, bookkeeping and payroll advising.
In the battle for District 2 on the County Council, Attorney David Bartholomew, a Republican from Lady’s Island, and Democrat Marilyn Harris of Dataw Island, a former congressional investigator for the U.S. House Appropriations Committee, are competing.
District 2 is made up of parts of Burton, downtown Beaufort, Lady’s Island, Dataw Island and Saint Helena Island.
The forum will be broadcast on The County Channel.
A second forum and ice cream social featuring city, county and state House candidates is from 6-8 p.m. Thursday at the education building at Wesley United Methodist Church in the 800 block of Duke Street. It is sponsored by the Old Commons Neighborhood Association.
The City Council and Beaufort County Council candidates and state Rep. Shannon Erickson, a Republican, and Democrat Barb Nash, who are running for House District 124, will be available at a 6 p.m. ice cream social.
District 124 includes Beaufort, Lady’s Island, Dataw Island, Parris Island, Port Royal and parts of Burton and St. Helena Island.
Nash and Erickson, who also faced each other in the 2020 election, will speak and answer questions at 6:30 p.m.
Nash is a registered nurse from Beaufort who is president of the Northwest Quadrant Neighborhood Association. Erickson is a teacher and school director who has held the seat since 2007.
The District 2 County Council candidates will speak and answer questions at 7:10 p.m.
There will be no question-and-answer period for the City Council candidates, who participated in a previous forum sponsored by the neighborhood association.
This story was originally published October 18, 2022 at 2:12 PM.
