Dunn dominates in SC Senate District 20 primary, will face Harpootlian in November
After a tumultuous election day in the middle of a pandemic, Benjamin Dunn bested American Cheer X-treme owner Randy Dickey in the Republican primary race for the South Carolina Senate’s 20th District.
When 100% of results were reported Wednesday morning, Dunn lead Dickey by about 43 percentage points.
Dunn dominated across the district, winning all but one of the voting precincts.
The attorney will face incumbent Democratic Sen. Dick Harpootlian in November. The district includes parts of downtown and large swathes of Irmo.
Harpootlian is a freshman state senator and attorney who wrestled the seat away from Republicans, who controlled the district seat for at least 30 years.
As of Tuesday night, it’s unclear if issues facing Richland County voters Tuesday at the polls — including races missing from ballots, long lines and handwritten ballots — will affect the results of the race, which still must be certified by the State Election Commission.
Dunn, a partner at Ormund Dunn law firm, chose to run to unseat Harpootlian for ideological reasons.
Though Dunn agrees with some moves the Richland Democrat has made — like his push for transparency when it comes to budget earmarks — he disagreed with him in other areas. While Harpootlian has been for raising the cap on torte claims, adding tolls on I-95 and prohibiting DHEC from issuing permits to companies who want to explore or build infrastructure to facilitate drilling off of South Carolina’s coast, Dunn is against those measures.
If elected to office in November, Dunn has vowed to focus on education reforms and helping the state recover from COVID-19.
For Dunn, bringing home a win in the primary means a rematch against Harpootlian.
The pair faced off during a special election in 2018, when Harpootlian bested Dunn by about 2,000 votes or about 5 percentage points.
To beat Harpootlian in November, Dunn would need to focus on winning districts Harpootlian dominated in during the 2018 election, including downtown and lower Irmo. In 2018, he enjoyed support in the northern part of the district — including Spring Hill, Dutch Fork and Ballentine precincts — which he would need to keep.
This story was originally published June 9, 2020 at 10:16 PM.
