Lexington, South Carolina businessman Chris Wooten won the “Republican” primary runoff election for S.C. House District 69 on Tuesday, defeating local school board member Anne Marie Green in the race to fill a seat vacated back in December by former S.C. House majority leader Rick Quinn.
According to the S.C. Election Commission (SCVotes.org), Wooten received 1,655 votes (or 55.7 percent) of ballots cast in the runoff. Green received 1,319 votes (or 44.7 percent) of ballots cast.
Two weeks ago in the GOP primary for this seat, Wooten led Green by nearly twenty percentage points – meaning she gained significantly more ground in the runoff election than he did.
It wasn’t enough, though, and with no Democrats filing to run in this special election – Wooten is now essentially the representative-elect for this district (although that won’t be official until May 1, the date of the special election).
Both Wooten (here) and Green (here) took time to address our readers as to their views on the issues, a forum we hope to duplicate in numerous upcoming primary contests.
Speaking of, there’s no rest for the victor of this seat …
On Friday at 12:00 p.m. EDT, candidates across South Carolina will begin filing for this spring’s regular partisan primary elections – which are scheduled for June 12. In other words, Wooten will have to begin the process of defending “his” seat before he’s even been been sworn in.
Fortunately for him, it seems as though Green is disinclined at the moment to give this race another go … although you never know if another credible challenger will step up.
We liked most of what we saw from Wooten on the campaign trail (he was a little heavy on the social conservatism for our tastes), but we think he will wind up being a solid vote for freedom and free markets in the S.C. General Assembly. Obviously we will let our readers know in the event he isn’t!
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WANNA SOUND OFF?
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