COLUMBIA, S.C. — Several key South Carolina Senate seats were on the ballot Tuesday in primary runoffs, including one where a longtime incumbent in Lexington County lost and two men were seeking to replace an outgoing lawmaker in Richland County.
WLTX has full election results for all those contests as well as other local races in the Midlands.
One of the races that drew a lot of attention was the State Senate District 23 Republican runoff, where incumbent Katrina Shealy lost to challenger Carlisle Kennedy. The seat is made up of Lexington County precincts including the town of Lexington.
"They've spoken that we want to take a more conservative approach to our issues at the state level and fix budgetary issues to make sure the money is spent efficiently," Kennedy said after the win.
Shealy had held the position since 2012 but faced opposition in her own party over her decision to join with the other four female members of the Senate to oppose a near total abortion ban in 2022. A similar version of the bill ultimately prevailed a year later following the U.S. Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe vs. Wade in the summer of 2022.
The two other Republican female senators who opposed the law--Sandy Senn and Penry Gustafson--both lost their primaries back on June 11.
Since the primary, the two had run TV commercials in heavy rotation, with Carlisle trying to question Shealy's Republican credentials and Shealy attempting to remind voters of her conservative stance on guns and other issues.
Kennedy, a former prosecutor, is now the presumptive winner of the seat since there is no Democrat filed to run in the conservative district.
In Senate District 22, Overture Walker prevailed over Ivory Thigpen in the Democratic primary runoff for that contest. The incumbent in that seat, Mia McLeod, decided not to seek re-election.
Walker is a current Richland County councilmember while Thigpen is a state representative who was looking to switch over to the Senate. Senate 22 stretches from parts of Kershaw County through northeast Richland County and down through Columbia into Forest Acres.
No Republican filed to run for that race but Walker will square off against Harold Geddings of the Workers Party in the November general election.
Here's a look at results from that race and other key Senate contests: