Columbia Mayor Steve Benjamin confirms he won’t seek re-election this year
Just more than a decade ago, Steve Benjamin made history when he became Columbia’s first African American mayor.
Now Benjamin says this current term will be his last as the leader of the Capital City.
Benjamin, 51, has confirmed to The State that he will not seek re-election this year. He is in this third term as mayor, and that term will come to a close at the end of 2021.
The mayor formally announced his plans in a Thursday news conference. In an interview with The State ahead of that announcement, Benjamin said the time was right to bring his tenure as the city’s leader to a conclusion.
Benjamin said a major reason for not seeking re-election is simple: He hopes to spend more time with his family, including his wife and teenage daughters.
“We have two years more with (daughter) Bethany here at home with us, and her sister (Jordan Grace) is two years right behind her,” Benjamin said. “I want to spend time enjoying these meaningful years with them, providing for them, and enjoy time with my wife (Circuit Judge DeAndrea Benjamin) who I love and adore. ... I’m a big believer in Ecclesiastes 3, ‘To everything there is a season.’
“After nearly 12 years, it’s time for a new season in life.”
Benjamin, an attorney, didn’t offer specifics on any future political plans, saying that he plans to practice law. He did say he plans to “continue serving the community, and be actively involved in shaping Columbia and South Carolina, but doing it, for now, as a private citizen.”
At Thursday’s news conference, Benjamin left open the possibility he might run for elected office sometime in years to come.
“Certainly it’s possible,” he said. “You never say never. I love public service. ... But while it certainly is possible and I’d never rule it out, it is not on my agenda, at all, today.”
The book on Benjamin’s mayoral tenure is, of course, not closed. There are more than 10 months left on his term, and there will likely be challenging moments ahead, as Columbia, like the rest of the world, continues to scuffle through the global pandemic.
“The number one job is to help Columbia and Columbians ... manage through the pandemic,” the mayor said. “We now have a partner in the federal government, and we are seeing more synchronicity between federal and state action and our public health partners. So, job number one is doing our very best to help people get access to vaccines and continue to engage in smart public health practices.”
A native of Queens, New York, Benjamin came to Columbia in 1987 to attend the University of South Carolina, where he later became the student body president, and graduated from USC’s School of Law. He is a former director of the state’s Department of Probation, Parole and Pardon Services. . He was appointed to that post by then-Gov. Jim Hodges in 1999, when Benjamin was just 29 years old.
Benjamin was preceded as Columbia’s mayor by Bob Coble, a popular city leader who held the seat for two decades, from 1990 to 2010. Coble didn’t seek re-election in 2010, and Benjamin was among seven candidates who sought the seat. He ultimately outlasted Kirkman Finlay, whose father had previously been a mayor in Columbia, in a runoff. Finlay was later elected as a state representative in District 75.
Columbia city elections were switched from even numbered years to odd numbered years beginning in 2013, and that year Benjamin was re-elected as mayor, outpacing challenger (and longtime city political rival) Moe Baddourah by 30 percentage points. Benjamin cruised to a third term in 2017, when he didn’t even draw a challenger.
His time as Columbia’s mayor also has, at times, brought with it the national spotlight
Benjamin has been prominent in the U.S. Conference of Mayors, a nonpartisan group of mayors that advocate on behalf of cities nationwide. He was the president of the mayors’ group in 2018 and 2019. He also recently was tapped as the national co-chair of the Center of U.S. Global Leadership Board, the U.S. Global Leadership Coalition’s education arm. He is the first sitting mayor to lead that board.
And, though seats on Columbia City Council, including mayor, are nonpartisan, Benjamin has been a figure in national Democratic politics. In 2016, he gave a speech at the Democratic National Convention. Also in 2016, a WikiLeaks hack of Hillary Clinton’s campaign manager’s email showed Benjamin was on a ”first cut” list of possible vice presidential candidates that year.
Benjamin’s announcement that he won’t run in 2021 comes just a week after District 1 City Councilman Sam Davis, the longest currently serving member of the body at 23 years, announced he also would not be seeking re-election this year. With Davis and Benjamin’s exit, a collective 34 years of elected council experience will be walking out the door.
Some new blood on the council could be a good thing, Benjamin said.
“I think it is always important to put a fresh set of eyes on old problems and old challenges,” he said. “I think it is important that my successor and Sam’s successor understand the journey we’ve been on as a city. ... I’m not as worried about the experience, as long as we find someone who has the spirit and recognizes that there are a lot of different people in Columbia who have a deep love for the city.”
Much has happened in Columbia during Benjamin’s three terms as mayor. Downtown’s Main Street district has been revitalized with a plethora of new bars, restaurants and entertainment options, and streetscape and facade work has given that corridor a much needed facelift. The city also has been through a private student housing boom in the last decade, fueled in part by tax incentives offered by the city and Richland County.
Meanwhile, the mayor was a major proponent of the BullStreet District, an ambitious plan to overhaul the sprawling, 181-acre former State Mental Hospital site. Under Benjamin’s leadership, the city pledged $100 million in public money to the site, including more than $30 million for the construction of Segra Park minor league baseball stadium. Development at the site has been methodical, but it has been building momentum with the opening of an REI outdoor store, a Starbucks, a senior living facility, a church/event center, new townhomes, a public park and more, with more apartments and office space on the way.
The mayor hasn’t been able to push through all that he has wanted, though. In 2013 he made a fervent effort to adopt a strong mayor form of government in the city, which would have given the mayor a much larger role in the day-to-day operations of Columbia. The issue was divisive among the city’s political movers and shakers, and ultimately failed in a voter referendum, with the city maintaining its council-manager form of government.
At one point during Thurday’s news conference, Benjamin paused to thank the city’s staff for their work, and specifically pointed out City Manager Teresa Wilson’s leadership.
Afterwards, Wilson said her working relationship with Benjamin, who she has known since she was a teenager, is strong.
“His relationship and our working relationship has evolved in a way where it works,” Wilson said. “There’s not really much, now, that comes as a surprise to me. We are always talking. He receives guidance and advice from the staff level, and obviously (council) has to make ultimate decisions and set policy. But (council) has allowed us to make recommendations that, I must say, they follow nine times out of 10, and they allow me to do my job.”
Benjamin’s announcement that he won’t be running again comes on his oldest daughter Bethany’s 16th birthday. He said he first entertained the thought of a run for mayor shortly after her birth in February 2005. So, announcing the end of this chapter is closing a circle, of sorts.
“I decided (after Bethany’s birth) that I wanted to do more to make Columbia a great place for her to grow up in and, when she was able to make her own decisions someday in life, a place she would want to come back to,” the mayor said. “And on Feb. 5, 2021, which is my daughter’s 16th birthday, is when I’m announcing I’m not seeking a fourth term. And for the very same reason: My family.”
This story was originally published February 4, 2021 at 5:00 AM.
