Primary Elections Draw Few Voters

By Paul Gable

We had primary elections for local and state offices in Horry County yesterday and 90 percent of the voters stayed home.

In Horry County, it was basically Republicans voting as Democrats only had three races to vote in, one senate race and two house races, with most of those three districts in other counties.

Luke Rankin easily won the Senate District 33 Republican nomination and Senate District 34 will see a runoff between Reese Boyd and Stephen Goldfinch. Boyd won the Horry County portion of the district, but with Georgetown and Charleston precincts included came in two percentage points behind Goldfinch.

Rankin is an incumbent while Boyd and Goldfinch are vying for an open seat.

As an aside, incumbent Hugh Leatherman easily won the Republican nomination for Senate District 31, making Gov. Nikki Haley zero for three in her endorsements of candidates on the Grand Strand and in the Pee Dee.

There were no contested Republican House races in Horry County.

Angie Jones and Renee Elvis swept to easy victories in the Horry County Treasurer and Horry County Clerk of Courts races for the Republican nomination. Both races were for open seats.

Gary Loftus easily secured the nomination for Horry County Council District 4. Other county council Republican nominations went to Paul Prince in District 9 and Danny Hardee in District 10.

Loftus and Prince are incumbents while District 10 was an open seat.

Scott Thompson and David Cox will face off in a runoff election in two weeks for the Republican nomination for Horry County Board of Education District 4. Other Board of Education Republican nominations went to John Poston in District 8, Chris Hardwick in District 9 and Shanda Allen in District 11.

Poston is an incumbent and Shanda Allen defeated incumbent Jeffrey Garland in District 11.

Even the unusually large number of open seat races failed to get voters enthused.

Congratulations to all the winners.