SC Rep. Finlay leads in close Richland House race; Democrat Jermaine Johnson wins seat
South Carolina state Rep. Kirkman Finlay, who has represented one of Richland County’s few State House seats held by a Republican since 2012, had a narrow lead over his Democratic challenger Wednesday afternoon as some votes still were being tallied.
And in another Richland district, Jermaine Johnson, a 35-year-old political newcomer who took on a 22-year veteran of the S.C. House and won his Democratic primary this summer, had won his House District 80 race.
But both races were too early to call early Wednesday morning after the State Election Commission reported a handful of counties — including Richland County — were still counting absentee ballots hours after polls had closed in South Carolina.
But as more returns came in Wednesday, after Richland election officials resumed counting votes, Finlay had a narrow advantage and Johnson had a double-digit advantage. The Associated Press also called the races for both candidates.
Seeking a fifth term, Finlay, 50, faced 39-year-old Columbia attorney Rhodes Bailey, who gave Finlay a competitive race both in money and ground game.
As of late Wednesday, Finlay was leading Bailey by 1.6 percentage points, according to the State Election Commission website.
The House District 75 race is the closest race in Richland County, with only 281 votes separating the two, according to the South Carolina Election Commission. As of 4 p.m. Wednesday, Finlay had 8,638 votes to Bailey’s 8,357.
If the margin of victory is less than 1%, an automatic recount will be started, said the county’s election director, Alexandria Stephens.
Meanwhile, unofficial results forecasts showed Democrat Johnson was slated to win his House race against GOP challenger Vincent Wilson by about 20.7 percentage points.
In June, Johnson delivered a stunning upset when he put Democratic House Rep. Jimmy Bales’ 22-year run to a close, unseating the 84-year-old Lower Richland legislator. Then, he beat Bales — who was first elected to the State House in 1998 — by 51 percentage points. Bales battled his own health challenges over the years in the Legislature, which, combined with COVID-19, put Johnson at an advantage to heavily canvas the district.
Wilson was an unknown candidate, whose Facebook page said he is in favor of term limits and wanted to stop corruption.
Johnson said he’ll be the first new face to represent the Lower Richland district in more than two decades.
“You make me want to cry,” Johnson told The State. “It has not set in yet at all. I’m going to be leaning on Dr. Bales for any support and guidance that he chooses to provide to me and I want to marry wisdom and youth and energy, so that I can take some of his things (he wanted to do) and get out in the community. I think it’s going to be great for the Lower Richland community and District 80 as a whole to have somebody like myself who is really energetic and get in front of these young people and be an inspiration and a motivation.”
With Johnson, a former College of Charleston basketball player, set to join the 124-member S.C. House, he’ll also likely be the tallest House member.
Reporter David Travis Bland contributed to this report.
Lexington, Richland legislative races
Richland and Lexington elections officials were counting absentee ballots Wednesday afternoon. But here’s a look at where the contests stood as of 5 p.m.
S.C. House
▪ District 41: Annie McDaniel (D, i): 12,522, 64.7%; Jennifer Brecheisen (R): 6,787, 35.0%
▪ District 71: Nathan Ballentine (R, i): 16,851, 64.6%; Terry Seawright (D): 8,419, 32.3%; Lawrence Lee (Lib): 756, 2.9%
▪ District 73: Chris Hart (D, i): 11,269, 78.1%; Myron Samuels (R): 3,141, 21.7%
▪ District 74: Todd Rutherford (D, i): 12,153, 82.7%; Vimalkumar Jariwala (R): 2,506, 17.0%
▪ District 77: Kambrell Garvin (D, i): 19,664, 83.5%; Justin Bishop (Lib): 3,748, 15.9%
▪ District 78: Beth Bernstein (D, i): 12,239, 65.8%; Viresh Sinha (R): 6,319, 34.0%
▪ District 79: Ivory Thigpen (D, i): 17,747, 86.9%; Victor Kocher (Lib): 2,576, 12.6%
▪ District 80: Jermaine Johnson, (D, i): 11,421, 60.3%; Vincent Wilson (R): 7,500, 39.6%
SOURCE: STATE ELECTION COMMISSION
This story was originally published November 4, 2020 at 1:18 AM with the headline "SC Rep. Finlay leads in close Richland House race; Democrat Jermaine Johnson wins seat."
