By: Heather Marie Blazek, Columbia, South Carolina.
Progressive voters headed to the polls Tuesday for South Carolina’s Primary election. In an overwhelming show of support, James Smith took the helm as the Democratic candidate for governor. Smith, most notably has received high-level endorsements including former Vice President Joe Biden. Trump endorsed Republican Henry McMaster moves forward to a runoff between challenger John Warren. Overall, 20.41% of 3,044,375 registered voters participated in statewide primary elections, including Republican races.
In District Two, which is currently held by Republican Joe Wilson, Annabelle Robertson and Sean Carrigan defeated “fake Democrat” Phil Black. Black, achieved 18.37%, or 6,224 of the 33,887 votes cast.
This isn’t the first time that District Two has seen Phil Black. In 2016 Black ran against Arik Bjorn netting a total of 9,636 votes versus Bjorn’s 9,681 during the primary. That’s 49.88% of all 19,317 Democratic votes for the district. Previously Black ran against Joe Wilson as a Republican and admitted that he could only win by running as a Democrat.
Despite two highly publicized and social media driven campaigns by candidates Robertson and Carrigan, it is reasonable to expect some level of randomness in voter selection. Some voters may have participated solely for the gubernatorial election, but unclear of the candidates running within their district.
Others may truly support candidate Black, whose website declares his political platform as “new Democrat.” While the data is not clear, it is known that 6,224 votes were cast for a candidate who does not support the Democratic platform.
For now, Black retires to the sidelines while Robertson and Carrigan move forward towards a runoff on June 26th, 2018.
Both candidates shared video posts announcing their advancement forward:
Annabelle Robertson video from her campaign Facebook page.
Sean Carrigan video from his campaign Facebook page.
Democrats were also asked if they supported medicinal cannabis, and whether or not they support the use of federal funds to expand Medicaid.
82.03% supported medicinal cannabis with 92.75% supporting federal funding.
Both candidates supporters are encouraging prospective voters to throughly research their choices before June 26th.
For information on runoff elections please visit: http://www.scvotes.org.
Confused woman header image by: pexels.com.
Grad School Journalist 