Who’s running for mayor of Columbia? Meet the four hopefuls looking for your vote

Editor’s note: The State in recent weeks recorded introduction videos of three mayoral candidates who have been campaigning for months. A fourth candidate, Moe Baddourah, filed to run late Thursday, and The State will have a video with him early next week.

The field of hopefuls looking to replace Steve Benjamin as Columbia’s mayor is set.

After three terms, Benjamin, Columbia’s first African American mayor, announced earlier this year he would not be seeking re-election. Now four candidates are looking to take the capital city’s top political spot.

Those who filed to seek the mayoral seat include longtime at-large City Councilwoman Tameika Isaac Devine, former Benjamin chief of staff Sam Johnson, District 4 City Councilman Daniel Rickenmann and former District 3 Councilman Moe Baddourah.

Meet the Candidates

Devine, the first African American woman elected to city council, is an attorney and has served in one of council’s at-large seats for 19 years.

Johnson worked for a number of years in Benjamin’s administration and is a consultant with Nexsen Pruet law firm.

Rickenmann has served on council for 12 years across two separate stints and is a consultant in renewable energy development.

Baddourah served two terms on city council in District 3, but was defeated by Will Brennan in his 2019 bid for a third term. He owns a restaurant in Columbia.

Aside from mayor, there are three other seats up for grabs on city council this year: an at-large position, District 1 and District 4. With Benjamin and District 1 City Councilman Sam Davis choosing not to seek re-election, and Devine and Rickenmann giving up their council seats to run for mayor, this year’s election could largely make over the seven-member council.

The Columbia election is Nov. 2, with runoffs on Nov. 16, if necessary.

This story was originally published August 13, 2021 at 12:06 PM.

Chris Trainor

The State

Chris Trainor is a retail reporter for The State and has been working for newspapers in South Carolina for more than 21 years, including previous stops at the (Greenwood) Index-Journal and the (Columbia) Free Times. He is the winner of a host of South Carolina Press Association awards, including honors in column writing, government beat reporting, profile writing, food writing, business beat reporting, election coverage, social media and more.