Meet the candidates for SC House District 70 in Richland County
Voters in Richland County House District 70 will have an unusual field of candidates to choose from on June 1.
The Democratic primary will feature two incumbent state House members along with a political newcomer.
After the 2020 census, the Republican-dominated General Assembly redrew all 124 House districts, which resulted in Democratic incumbents Jermaine Johnson and Wendy Brawley being placed in District 70. Johnson, who now represents District 80, is in his first term in the House. Brawley has represented District 70 since 2017. A third Democratic candidate is newcomer Bridgette Larry.
The primary date is June 14, although early voting opened on May 31.
If a candidate does not receive more than 50% of the votes in the primary, a run-off will take place on June 28 between the two who get the most votes. The winner of this race will face Republican Vincent Wilson and Green party candidate Charla Henson-Simons in the general election on Nov. 8.
The new House District 70 is mainly in the Lower Richland area and stretches from I-77 to the Sumter County line. It includes Eastover, Hopkins, Gadsden, Horrell Hill and Lower Richland High School.
In the 2024 elections, though, the House districts will likely resemble their previous versions after a federal court settlement. A lawsuit filed on behalf of the South Carolina NAACP said that the state’s new House district map was purposely discriminatory against African American voters. One of the ways the redrawing impacted African American voters was combining Districts 80 and 70, which are mainly Black.
For voter information and researching purposes, go to scvotes.gov.
Wendy Brawley
Age: 63
Educational background: Bachelor’s degree in psychology from the University of South Carolina, master’s in business from Webster University
Occupation: Publisher and CEO of IMARA Comunications Group
How does it feel to run against another incumbent candidate because of redistricting?
“You know unfortunately the circumstances placed me in contention with a colleague in the House . . . because of gerrymandered districts, but I feel that we are running a good campaign.”
How will being an incumbent help you win this race?
“I feel like we know how to reach people and to take our message to the voters. But nothing is assured until people actually vote. So we’ve been doing a lot of people campaigning, reaching out with all kinds of events in our district to bring people out and hear the issues from them. To hopefully mobilize them to not only vote but to take others to vote with them”.
What are you basing your campaign off of?
“Making certain that our children have safe environments in school, that school districts have the adequate funding that they need to meet the needs of the students in rural communities.”
“I’ve also been focused on making sure that there is economic opportunity in rural communities so we have clean industries that can provide livable wage jobs, as well as not threaten our community, our health, and those are things I’ve been focused on before I was elected I have continued and will continue to do if reelected.”
Jermaine Johnson
Age: 36
Educational background: Bachelor of Arts in communications, Master of Science in Management (concentration: project management), doctorate in Business Administration
Occupation: Small business owner of DT Consulting firm , adjunct professor at Webster University
How does it feel running against another incumbent candidate due to the rezoning?
“It’s an unfortunate situation that we got put in. Nobody wanted to be drawn into each other’s district, but these are the cards that’s dealt when you’re not the majority.”
How you being an incumbent help you win this race?
“Because I’m incumbent, it gives me a record to stand on, it gives the voters something to look at. Some tangible information to see the work I’ve been able to get accomplished. During my first term, I’ve gotten a lot done so because of that, it allows people to see that I’m moving quickly, I’m getting things done and I’m building relationship like the voters asked me to do. There’s an amendment I got added onto the state budget that would create the community violence intervention program and it will create a new department in DHEC.”
What are you basing your campaign off of?
“I’m a young person myself and we’re losing young people who are victims to gun violence. I’ve been really trying to focus on stopping the gun violence that is going on in our communities. I go to these different community events, and I participate in all the marches to end gun violence. I called on the General Assembly to allocate $25 million towards gun violence prevention.” (The money would be allocated to DHEC to create the community violence intervention program.)
Bridgette Larry
Age: 59
Occupation: Sevita Direct, support professional
Educational: GED, studied two years at Columbia International University
What was is it like jumping into the political space?
“Fish out of water for one thing. All I can do is be firm and adamant about what I’m running for.”
What are you basing your campaign off of?
“There’s a lot of things to run on in this district, first and foremost the corruption and racism really has to be addressed. It seems like the people in the State House now are just scared to address the issues, like it’s unspoken; ‘oh, don’t talk about that.’”
How would you address the issues?
“Tougher gun laws; I just had a shoot-out around my house the other day. Tougher gun laws for anybody but these young people really need something else to do with themselves.”
“How could I speak to these people to make them understand that guns are not the way. These (gun) laws that they are making in the State House are pertaining to young Black men. They were made especially to kill you (young Black men) or to put you deep in jail.”
With you being new, what should the public know about you?
“A lot of people think I’m crazy for putting my foot in that water, but I’m adamant about running and passionate about these issues that I’m concerned about.”
“I’m not doing a whole lot of talk, I’m about going out there.”
“So, I’m going to make a change, something has got to change about this district.”
This story was originally published June 1, 2022 at 1:46 PM.
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