Peter Brown will keep Columbia City Council seat after runoff victory
Peter Brown will keep his seat on Columbia City Council, winning the race for the city’s eastern district with 54% of the vote, over challenger Julie Lumpkin’s 45% in a runoff election Nov. 18.
Brown, president of Columbia-based commercial signage company Colite, has run a campaign focused on customer service and economic development.
He 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.
Lumpkin ran 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 people’s ability to find subsequent quality housing.
Brown has served on the council since 2023, after winning a special election held after the death of Councilman Joe Taylor. Winning the runoff will net him another four years on the council.
