Early results show tight race in SC 1st District

11 p.m.

With 52 percent of results now in from the slow-moving 1st District race, Arrington maintains her lead of 53 percent to 47 percent for Cunningham.

10 p.m.

With 39 percent of precincts reporting, Arrington is maintaining a lead over Cunningham in the 1st District, 54 percent to 46 percent, according to the New York Times.

8:40 p.m.

In early reporting, 53 percent of 1st District voters are backing Arrington to continue Republican control of the district. Cunningham, the Democrat, has 47 percent early on.

Dorchester County, Arrington’s home, is the only of the district’s five counties reporting right now.

8:12 p.m.

In South Carolina’s most-watched race for Congress, early results Tuesday are suggesting a tight race.

Republican Katie Arrington is up by a tenth of a percentage point over Democrat Joe Cunningham in the 1st District.

Arrington has 4,062 votes to Cunningham’s 4,054 in the first results posted to the official election tracker SCVotes.org.

Arrington, a first-term member of the S.C. House of Representatives, defeated incumbent U.S. Rep. Mark Sanford in a June GOP primary, arguing Sanford was insufficiently supportive of President Donald Trump.

But Cunningham, a Charleston attorney and ocean engineer, managed to out-raise Arrington by garnering support of national Democrats in hopes of flipping the Charleston-area seat.

Arrington’s early support of off-shore drilling in particular has caused her trouble in the coastal district, as many coastal mayors endorsed Cunningham.

This story was originally published November 6, 2018 at 8:12 PM.