GOP Primary runoffs set for Tuesday, early voting going on now
Challenger Justin Lane, left, and incumbent David Tribble.
Early voting began this past Wednesday as Laurens County voters headed back to the polls for two Republican Primary election runoffs set for Tuesday.
Early voting for the U.S. District 3 Congressional seat and Laurens County Council District 7 began Wednesday. Polls will be open from 7 a.m.-7 p.m. Tuesday.
In District 7, the contest between incumbent David Tribble and newcomer Justin Lane ended in a tie with the candidates receiving 647 votes apiece.
During the mandatory recount and state certification process, both Tribble and Lane picked up one provisional vote apiece, and the primary remained tied, forcing the runoff.
The June 11 Primary elections were certified by the South Carolina Board of Elections Thursday, and the necessary runoffs were officially announced afterward.
U.S. House of Representatives Dist. 3 candidates Sheri Biggs, left, and Mark Burns.
For the congressional seat, which is currently occupied by Jeff Duncan (R-S.C.), Mark Burns and Sheri Biggs, both from Anderson, advanced through field of seven candidates, which included Laurens state Rep. Stewart Jones. Duncan, a Laurens native, did not seek a seventh term in office after news broke of an extra-marital affair with a Washington, D.C. lobbyist.
Burns led all vote-getters in the Dist. 3 primary with 33.2% of the vote (27,069 votes), while Biggs followed at 28.9% (23,523 votes). Jones finished third in the primary with 18.7% (15,260 votes) of the vote.
Jones did win his home county with 50.1% (3,921), but Burns and Biggs combined for 39% of the county vote, picking up just over 3,000 votes in the county all together.
It seemed Tribble was on his way to being elected to a second term in his second stint on County Council. He led by around 80 votes with about 2/3 of the precincts counted on election night.
But Lane, a Joanna resident, handily won the Joanna precinct, which was among the last to report, with 240 votes (62%). Tribble had 147 votes from Joanna (38%).
Earlier, Tribble had easily won Clinton 2 with 207 votes to Lane’s 95, carrying the precinct with 68.5% of the votes there.
In the two other county council primaries:
Republican Matthew Brownlee handily won the nomination for the District 2 seat currently occupied by Luke Rankin over Dale Stetz with 88% of the vote. Rankin is running unopposed for the South Carolina House of Representatives Dist. 14 seat currently held by Jones.
Brownlee is running unopposed in November for the District 2 seat.
With 53.5% of the vote, incumbent Shirley Clark held off challenge from Lee McDaniel, who was seeking the seat once held by his brother, Garrett McDaniel and his father, Ed McDaniel, in the Democratic Primary.
Clark won her first full term on council. She took office initially following a 2021 special election, succeeding Garrett McDaniel who had accepted a post in the administration of President Joe Biden.
In November, Clark will face a challenge from Republican Britton Wolf.
Diane Anderson was unchallenged for her District 6 seat in the Democratic primary and will be unopposed in November.
In other county races, Sheriff Don Reynolds won the GOP nomination for a third term in office, easily surviving a challenge from Chris Wilkes with 72.4% of the vote, and Patti Canupp, who is currently chief deputy coroner, defeated Bill Seawright for the Republican nomination for coroner with 61% of the vote.
Barring write-in campaigns, Reynolds and Canupp will run unopposed in November’s General Election.
