SC primary winners and losers: Beaufort and Jasper county voters impact 3 key races
Registered voters in Beaufort and Jasper Counties helped place four candidates on the November general election ballot alongside former president Donald Trump and President Joe Biden at the top of the ticket.
U.S. House. District 1
Shortly after 8:30 p.m. and with 30% of the precincts reported, The Associated Press called the Republican primary for incumbent Rep. Nancy Mace.
This was the race garnering outsized state-wide and national attention and resulted in the Trump and McMaster-backed incumbent turning aside challenges from Republicans Catherine Templeton and Bill Young.
With 100% of precincts reporting and 49,805 votes counted on the state’s election website, Mace maintained her evening-long lead at 57% over Templeton’s 29% and Young’s 13%. The race’s split locally with Beaufort County voters largely mirroring the district-wide percentages.
After being declared the Republican winner at her campaign event in Charleston, Mace had some sharp comments for her general election challenger, Michael B. Moore, “It sounds like the Democrats elected ‘Bernie Bro’ so I look forward to educating Lowcountry voters in South Carolina what socialism is because that’s what my opponent is going to represent.” Her comments clearly suggesting a similarity between Moore and Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders.
On the Democratic side, Moore defeated Mac Deford 51% to 48% with a total of 21,081 votes counted. This earned Moore a spot to take on the Republican winner Mace in November. In Beaufort County, voters gave Deford a 60% to 40% lead against Moore but the rest of the district didn’t agree and carried Moore into the final lead by 3%.
Moore’s press release issued shortly after 9 p.m. thanked supporters and added, “This November, we have a real shot at replacing Nancy Mace and finally delivering for the Lowcountry’s working families in Congress.” He wasn’t shy about starting his general election campaign with some pointed messaging at Mace, “The good people of this district deserve a dedicated representative in Washington who prioritizes their needs and gets real results — not a Donald Trump acolyte focused on booking Fox News appearances and banning IVF.”
The SC District 1 runs from north of McClellanville and includes Charleston, Hilton Head Island, Beaufort and Bluffton.
U.S. House. District 6
With 100% of the precincts counted, Republican Duke Buckner defeated Justin Scott 55% to 44% to win the party’s nomination. Buckner will face 16-term incumbent Jim Clyburn in November. Clyburn has held that seat since 1993 and ran uncontested in this primary.
Buckner battled Scott to a nearly dead heat in Jasper County where a 11 vote margin of victory went to Buckner and his 938 supporters. Scott registered 927.
Buckner is from Walterboro and according to his website he is a, “a 1994 Graduate of South Carolina State University. Mr. Buckner began his career as a 7th grade English teacher at Colleton Middle School. He then taught 11th grade American Literature at Walterboro High School . Mr. Buckner left the school system to start the first African-American owned and operated weekly newspaper in Colleton County....Mr. Buckner received his J.D. from Nova Southeastern University Shepard Broad Law Center in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida in 2007. As an attorney, Mr. Buckner began his legal career as a public defender fighting for the legal rights of indigent people in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida.”
SC State House, District 122
With 100% of the precincts reporting Audrey Hopkins-Williams defeated Johnny Lee Jackson Jr. by a wide margin of 62% to 37%. There were 2,877 votes counted in this race.
According to her Facebook page, Hopkins-Williams lives in Estill and works for the town of Gifford. She will face Republican incumbent Bill Hager for the State House of Representatives, District 122 seat in November. Hager lives in Hampton and is a retired engineer. He has held the seat since November of 2022.
This story was originally published June 11, 2024 at 10:08 PM.