Republican Finlay narrowly wins Columbia SC House seat after vote count finally ends

Republican Kirkman Finlay III is the winner of the Columbia-centered State House District 75, according to results certified Friday afternoon by Richland County elections officials.

Finlay, 50, the son of a former Columbia mayor, beat Democratic challenger Rhodes Bailey, 39, by 257 votes — just enough to avoid a mandatory recount — in the results announced shortly after 3 p.m. Friday. It will be Finlay’s fifth two-year term.

“This is evidence of how democracy works,” Charles Austin, chairman of the county Board of Canvassers and the county elections commission.

Finlay had 8,759 votes to Bailey’s 8,502.

Bailey’s effort was the closest yet that any of Finlay’s previous challengers had come to beating him. In Finlay’s first election, in 2012, Finlay beat Democrat Joe McCulloch by 308 votes.

Austin’s statement came after a meticulous six-hour examination of more than 400 votes, about 200 of which were declared ineligible for one reason or another. The reasons for declaring a vote ineligible ranged from not being a registered voter in Richland County to not registering to vote by the one-month before the election deadline.

As they worked, Republican and Democratic party officials were in the room, as well as lawyers for Finlay and Bailey, along with some reporters.

Due to the closeness of the initial vote tallies after Tuesday’s election, Finlay had been reluctant to declare victory, and Bailey was not ready to concede.

A vote difference of 1% or less — or about 173 or fewer votes in this case — would have triggered a recount.

Finlay, a farmer and businessman, said through a text, “I would like to thank everyone for their support and hard work, and I look forward to getting back to work for the people of House District 75 and the State of South Carolina.”

Rob Tyson, one of two Finlay lawyers on hand at the Richland County government building during the day’s examination of questioned ballots, told reporters that Finlay is happy about the result.

“It took a long time. Kirkman’s pleased that he is obviously going to get to go back for another two years and serve his district,” Tyson said. Attorney Carlisle Traywick was also on hand for Finlay. Present for Bailey was attorney Chris Kenney.

Bailey said, “I want to congratulate Kirkman for winning the election. This was hard-fought campaign, and I wish him and and his family well as he continues to serve the people of this District. I want to thank the thousands of people who voted for me in this race. I am so humbled by the confidence people showed me,” Bailey added.

A Columbia attorney who works as a public defender, Bailey continued, “Leadership is action, not position, and I will continue to serve the people of this district and city in my capacity as a citizen and lawyer.”

Bailey came close to beating Finlay in an election year when many people were voting straight Republican because of the presence of Donald Trump and U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham on the ballot.

Republican Party chairman Drew McKissick said this week that the GOP had the “largest, most expansive ‘get out the vote’ ground game in the history of the South Carolina Republican Party.

“We had a team of more than 300 around the state who knocked on 600,000 doors, made 1.5 million live phone calls, and sent more than 4 million text messages and close to 10 million pieces of mail. In the process, we contacted our targeted voters anywhere from three to six times each,” McKissick told Republicans this week in an email.

It was a hard-fought campaign. Bailey had been working for more than a year to try to unseat Finlay, a moderate Republican who sits on the powerful House Ways and Means Committee, which helps set the agenda for state spending. Both candidates flooded the district with numerous mailings and phone calls.

This story was originally published November 6, 2020 at 3:49 PM.