COLUMBIA, S.C. — A well-known member of the South Carolina legislature from Columbia is trailing in his bid for re-election.
With 100 percent of precincts reporting, Republican Kirkman Finlay was behind Democratic challenger Heather Bauer by 234 votes --- 7,497 to 7,263 -- in the race for House District 75. Bauer got 51 percent of the vote to Finlay's 49 percent.
Notably, the Associated Press, which calls contests for statewide races in South Carolina, did not project a winner in the race as of early Wednesday morning.
An automatic recount would take place if the vote differential is less than one percent of total votes cases, but the race is slightly out of that margin. The current vote total is unofficial until the race is certified later this week.
Finlay has represented District 75 since 2013 and had previously served as a member of the Columbia City Council. He's also the son of a former Columbia mayor. Bauer is a former college athlete who founded Warrior Fitness and Martial Arts.
Bauer had run for the seat in 2020 but lost in the primary to Rhodes Bailey. Bailey went on to lose to Finlay by several hundred votes.
The race got a surprising amount of ad spending by both candidates. Bauer made a major part of her campaign access to abortion rights for women.
District 75 contains some of the more affluent neighborhoods in parts of the Columbia area, including Lake Katherine, Forest Acres, Shandon, and Rosewood.
The result is surprising as it was an overall a good night for Republicans in South Carolina, as they swept the statewide races again and retained the six U.S. House seats and one U.S. Senate seat they were defending. That included Gov. Henry McMaster winning another term in office and Ellen Weaver's win to become the new South Carolina education superintendent.