Clark defeats Tollison for District 3 county council seat

Shirley Clark

Democrat Shirley Clark will represent the residents of District 3 on Laurens County Council.

Clark won Tuesday’s Special Election, collecting 309 votes to Republican Scott Tollison’s 107.

“I just kept getting out there, doing the same things I did in July (during the Democratic Primary),” Clark said. “I was talking to people and telling them to exercise their right to vote.”

Clark said she was walking five-to-seven miles during daily campaign trips throughout District 3.

It paid off with Clark winning big in Laurens Precinct 1 (40-7), Laurens Precinct 4 (83-4), Gray Court (36-9) and with absentee voters (99-21).

Tollison carried two precincts, Laurens 6 (19-11) and Barksdale-Narnie (13-10).

Clark will take over a District 3 seat occupied for the past 32 years by either the late Ed McDaniel, who was first elected to county council in 1989, or his son, Garrett McDaniel, elected in 2015 following his father’s death. The younger McDaniel resigned his seat earlier this year to take a job in the administration of President Joe Biden.