Race to replace Chip Jackson on Richland County Council headed to runoff
The Democratic primary for the Richland County Council’s 9th District is headed for a runoff — again.
According to unofficial returns released Tuesday night, no candidate has garnered a majority of the votes in the special primary, organized after County Council member Chip Jackson died in August.
Instead, Jonneika Farr and Jesica Mackey are set to square off again on Sept. 22 in a race that will almost certainly determine who will take the District 9 seat come November, as no Republican has registered to run in that race, according to the State Election Commission’s website.
District 9 encompasses the Pontiac area in northeastern Richland County.
For Farr, who led Tuesday with 549 votes out of 1,416 ballots cast (38.77%), the runoff will be her fourth race in four months. She finished second in the original June primary with 24.17% of the vote, forcing a runoff against Jackson, who fell just a few votes shy of a majority.
Two weeks later, Jackson won the runoff with more than 53% of the vote, clearing the way for him to win a second term on the council after originally being elected in 2016. The former Richland 2 school board member died, however, in early August, at the age of 65.
In the race to replace him, four candidates filed — Farr, Mackey, Angela Gary Addison and Cody Pressley.
Mackey, who ran second Tuesday with 488 votes (34.46%), is a senior project advisor at NP Strategy, a public relations firm.
Prior to Tuesday’s election, Mackey said her focus in the race is improving local infrastructure for the area. Mackey said that the district is growing fast, and improvements need to be made to handle the influx of new residents.
Mackey also voiced support for transparency in the county’s penny tax roads program and better management of the program’s funds.
Farr works as a business analyst for the S.C. Department of Social Services. She’s also a board member for the Greater Columbia Community Relations Council and has defined her campaign around three central issues — improving roads and infrastructure, helping small businesses and focusing on community engagement.
“Increasing broadband and WiFi access to Richland County residents should also be a top priority,” she wrote in a questionnaire from The State.
Pressley, who works in real estate and is a veteran, was third Tuesday with 272 votes (19.21%). Addison, who works for a health care provider and is the founder of a youth nonprofit, according to the (Columbia) Free Times, was in fourth place with 107 votes (7.56%).
