Crowded Education Superintendent Race Highlights SC Ballot

By JEFFREY COLLINS, Related Press

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Contests for governor and the U.S. Senate are the marquee races in South Carolina’s primaries subsequent week, however quite a few candidates are additionally competing for seats in Congress and for the statewide roles of training superintendent, lawyer normal and agriculture commissioner.

U.S. Rep. Tom Rice faces a half-dozen Republican challengers as he seeks the nomination for his sixth time period. The race within the seventh District, which is anchored by Florence and Myrtle Seashore, turned crowded after Rice was one 10 Home Republicans to assist the second impeachment effort towards then-President Donald Trump.

Rice’s high opponent, state Rep. Russell Fry, has been endorsed by Trump. Democratic candidate and Military veteran Daryl Scott has no challengers within the major.

One other incumbent going through a fierce combat is Republican U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace, whose 1st District runs from Charleston to Hilton Head Island.

Mace is going through Katie Arrington, who gained the Republican nomination in 2018 however misplaced within the normal election to one-term Democratic U.S. Rep. Joe Cunningham. Mace defeated Cunningham in 2020. Dr. Annie Andrews is the one Democrat working this yr.

Within the 4th District, Republican U.S. Rep. William Timmons is going through three challengers. Timmons is among the many Republican congressmen who voted towards certifying the 2020 presidential election outcomes for Joe Biden and he has obtained an endorsement from Trump. However his opponents contend he isn’t conservative sufficient.

Trump selected Timmons over Mark Burns, a pastor who spent two years going to rallies to talk on Trump’s behalf. The opposite two candidates competing towards Timmons are George Abuzeid, a former adviser to the congressman, and retired businessman Michael LaPierre.

The lone Democrat within the race is Ken Hill, a nuclear energy plant high quality management inspector for the congressional district, which is anchored by Greenville and Spartanburg.

U.S. Rep. Jim Clyburn, South Carolina’s solely Democrat in Congress, is going through two challengers as he seeks a sixteenth time period within the sixth District, the state’s solely majority minority district, which extends from Columbia to Charleston.

Clyburn, whose endorsement of Biden is broadly seen because the defining issue that led to the present president’s victory within the 2020 Democratic major, faces chiropractor and insurance coverage adjuster Michael Addison and constitution faculty trainer Gregg Marcel Dixon.

On the Republican facet, lawyer Duke Buckner and advisor A. Sonia Morris are looking for the nomination.

Within the fifth District, which runs from Rock Hill to Sumter, Republican U.S. Rep. Ralph Norman has no challengers within the major. In November, he’ll face one among two Democrats at present vying for his or her social gathering’s nomination: Kevin Eckert, a group organizer and technician, and builder and actual property agent Evangeline Hundley. Norman has been in Congress since 2017.

Within the 2nd District, which incorporates the western suburbs of Columbia and Aiken, Republican U.S. Rep. Joe Wilson has no major opposition for the seat he has represented since 2001. His Democratic opponent in November is Judd Larkins, who describes himself on his marketing campaign web site as a “husband, a canine dad, a enterprise proprietor, a university soccer fanatic and a South Carolina native.”

Republican U.S. Rep. Jeff Duncan is unopposed within the major and normal election as he seeks a seventh time period within the third District, which covers the northwest a part of South Carolina.

Along with the congressional races, Republican incumbents in three statewide places of work face major challenges: the lawyer normal, secretary of state and agriculture commissioner.

Legal professional Common Alan Wilson is looking for a fourth time period. He’s challenged by lawyer Lauren Martel, who mentioned Wilson does extra speaking than preventing for conservative positions resembling defending Accomplice monuments or preventing COVID-19 vaccine mandates. No Democrats have entered the race.

Secretary of State Mark Hammond is being challenged within the Republican major by Keith Blanford, who desires to take the function of overseeing elections away from a board appointed by the governor and provides it to the Secretary of State’s Workplace.

A invoice that may make that transition was proposed within the Common Meeting this yr however by no means obtained a listening to. The Republican-dominated Legislature did overhaul election legal guidelines to permit early voting.

The winner of the Republican major will face Democrat Rosemounda Peggy Butler within the fall.

Agriculture Commissioner Hugh Weathers has two opponents for the Republican nomination: Spartanburg County Soil and Water Commissioner Invoice Bledsole and Bob Rozier, who works within the farming business.

The winner will face David Edmond of the Inexperienced Get together and Chris Nelums of the United Residents Get together. If Bledsoe loses the Republican major, he’ll run within the normal election beneath the Constitutional Get together. That is the final yr that state legislation permits candidates to run for a couple of social gathering.

Each events have crowded fields after Republican Schooling Superintendent Molly Spearman determined to not run once more after eight years within the job.

Spearman typically disagreed with different Republican leaders, particularly on points resembling whether or not native districts ought to have the ability to mandate masks to guard towards COVID-19. That schism has continued into the Republican major.

Spearman endorsed Kathy Maness, who’s govt director of the Palmetto State Lecturers Affiliation. Spearman says Maness has been a trainer and is aware of each the legislative course of and the way colleges function.

Many different Republican leaders have endorsed Ellen Weaver, the CEO of conservative suppose tank Palmetto Promise Institute and chairwoman of the state Schooling Oversight Committee. She additionally has the backing of earlier state training superintendents Barbara Nielsen and Mick Zais.

Weaver has raised greater than $325,000, an quantity not matched by every other candidate. Travis Bedson, who owns a basis restore firm, has raised about $280,000, with most of that cash coming from a $250,000 mortgage he made to his marketing campaign, in line with marketing campaign finance experiences. Bedson says South Carolina public colleges want a enterprise mindset to run higher.

Maness has raised about $115,000.

Weaver and Bedson face one other hurdle: Neither of them has the grasp’s diploma that South Carolina legislation now requires of a superintendent. Maness does. Each Weaver and Bedson say they’re engaged on the superior diploma, however election officers mentioned there isn’t a precedent for what occurs if one among one among them wins in November with out it.

Different Republicans working are Florence College District 1 Board Member Bryan Chapman, Greenville County College Board member Lynda Leventis-Wells and Lexington elementary faculty trainer Kizzi Gibson.

Competing for the Democratic nomination are state Rep. Jerry Govan, former Anderson County College District 4 Superintendent Gary Burgess and Lisa Ellis, founding father of the trainer advocate group SC for Ed.

Comply with Jeffrey Collins on Twitter at https://twitter.com/JSCollinsAP.

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