Columbia council seat for northeast district could go to runoff
Incumbent council member Peter Brown and challenger Julie Lumpkin could face off in a runoff election for the Columbia City Council district 4 seat, after neither candidate received more than 50% of the vote Tuesday night.
Brown received the most votes Tuesday, winning just under 47% of ballots cast. Lumpkin received just under 30% of the votes. They earned 2,530 and 1,602 votes respectively.
The candidates are hoping to represent the Columbia district that includes the area around Forest Acres and the northern portion of the Garners Ferry Road corridor.
The district has a diverse population with a wide mix of incomes, home values and priorities.
Brown has said he feels residents generally want the same things: responsive city services and quality of life improvements like investments in city parks, water infrastructure and public safety. Brown has also spoken about wanting to attract more businesses to the city to create more taxable properties and higher paying jobs to better attract young professionals, and to keep college students who may leave Columbia after graduation.
Brown first won his seat on city council in a 2023 special election after the death of City Councilman Joe Taylor.
Lumpkin, who spent much of her career with the state department formerly known as the Department of Health and Environmental Control, has run a campaign focused on listening to neighborhood concerns and creating a more responsive city government. She’s also focused on what the city can do to combat the high number of evictions filed in Richland County each year, and the consequences of those filings for peoples’ ability to find subsequent quality housing.
