Republicans Val Guest and Brian Sweeney are leading in the race for Russell Fry’s old seat in the South Carolina State House, but neither have a majority of the vote, so the two will be in a run-off election in two weeks.
Guest, who ended the night with roughly 38% of the votes, that is, 2,627 votes, said that he is feeling “pretty good.”
“I appreciate all the people that voted for me, and hopefully they’ll come out in two weeks, and we’ll be successful,” Guest said.
Sweeney ended the night with roughly 32% of the votes, that is, 2,174 votes, and said he is “looking forward” to the run-off. Sweeney also said that he credits his success in making it this far to his campaign team.
Barnard ended the night with 1,296 votes, which makes up roughly 19% of the votes.
Bailey ended up with 796 votes, which makes up roughly 12% of the votes.
Primary election results will be unofficial until Thursday, the deadline for counties to certify their results and report then to the South Carolina Election Commission. The state will then certify election results on Friday. Any hand-count audits of county-level results must happen on Wednesday. In the event of a candidate not receiving 50% plus-one votes, they will head to a run-off election. Those will be held June 28, and polls will be open all day.
In the running for the State House for District 106 — Surfside Beach — were four Republicans and one Democrat.
The Republican candidates include Bruce E. Bailey of Myrtle Beach, Howard Barnard of Myrtle Beach, Guest of Myrtle Beach and Sweeney of Murrells Inlet.
The Democratic candidate is Ryan Thompson of Murrells Inlet, who is running unopposed in his primary.
The Sun News spoke to each of the five candidates before the polls closed to see how they are feeling about the big day.
“I’ve been working for it for a long time,” Barnard, a retired United States Air Force colonel and fighter pilot, said.
Guest, a local prosecutor, said he is feeling “a little apprehensive” but is looking forward to seeing the results overall.
Sweeney, a New York native and longtime insurance professional, got out to polls, saw the voter turnout and felt “optimistic” for the results.
Bailey, a retired government records manager, said his campaign got off to a rough start because of COVID-19, but that he nevertheless had “fun” campaigning and getting his name out there.
Thompson, the youngest of the candidates and a recent College of Charleston graduate, said he is looking forward to seeing who he will be up against in November.
“I’ve lived here my whole life. So I know Democrats don’t really often run for office here,” he said. “I knew it was going to be an uphill battle, but I’m just hoping that with all of the divisiveness in this primary, voters will be looking for someone that’s going to offer them a real choice and change for November.”
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