Rickenmann, elected next Columbia mayor in runoff, says he’s ‘overwhelmed’ by support
Daniel Rickenmann will be the 37th mayor of Columbia.
According to unofficial numbers from the Richland County elections office released just after 9:30 p.m. Tuesday, Rickenmann had tallied 10,550 votes (52%), while opponent Tameika Isaac Devine had 9,751 (48%).
The results of the election will be certified Thursday morning by the city’s election commission.
Rickenmann was jubilant Tuesday night as he celebrated with supporters at The Main Course restaurant in downtown Columbia. As a rock band jammed on stage, the capital city’s mayor-elect posed for selfies with voters and hugged his wife, Laura.
“I’m just overwhelmed by all the support from the business community, the citizens of Columbia, the young people and the old, a cross section of people,” Rickenmann said. “I’m just excited about the opportunity to serve them and get to work.”
Rickenmann acknowledged a hard-fought race with Devine, who has been his colleague on Columbia City Council for more than a decade.
“At the end of the day, it came down to a battle,” Rickenmann said. “There were a lot of outside folks involved. At end of the day, Columbia chose and we both respect the voters.”
Devine and Rickenmann were battling for the seat held by Mayor Steve Benjamin, who didn’t seek reelection after three terms. Benjamin is Columbia’s first African American mayor. Devine has been an at-large member of Columbia City Council for 19 years, while Rickenmann has served for 12 years across two different stints, first as an at-large councilman, then in District 4 in the northeast part of the city.
Devine told supporters Tuesday night that despite the results, she will continue to work to improve Columbia.
“We have raised issues of income instability, affordable housing, creating equitable neighborhoods and embracing the diversity of this city,” Devine said, sharing what she was proud of during her campaign while acknowledging voters “spoke very clear” in electing Rickenmann. “But I will tell you that although I am no longer going to be in an elected position in this city, my work in this city is not done.”
“We have people in this city who need a champion, and that champion does not have to be mayor and does not have to be an elected official,” Devine said.
“We know that we have so many more elections ahead of us so I am asking everybody to roll up their sleeves and continue to work.”
Rickenmann’s election marks a change in Columbia’s politics. While city seats are nonpartisan, Columbia has been led by Democratic mayors for more than 30 years — Bob Coble for 20, and Benjamin for the last 11. Rickenmann is a Republican. Also, Columbia’s mayors for at least the last 40 years have been attorneys. Rickenmann is a businessman.
“For me, it is about being the mayor for everybody,” Rickenmann said. “This is about serving the people of Columbia, and that’s what I intend to do.”
Rickenmann, who works in renewable energy development, raised the most campaign cash for the race — more than $400,000 as of Oct. 19 — and often focused his campaign on business and public safety issues. He was endorsed by the Central Carolina Realtors Association.
Devine, an attorney, is the only African American woman to ever be elected to the council and she was vying to be the first woman elected Columbia’ mayor. Some of the key pieces of her campaign were the idea of establishing an equity office at the city and enhancing regional cooperation to tackle issues. She was endorsed by Democratic U.S. Rep. Jim Clyburn of Columbia, and was endorsed by Benjamin in the runoff. Benjamin initially endorsed Sam Johnson, his former chief of staff, ahead of the Nov. 2 election.
Election day got off to a rocky start in Columbia Tuesday, as there were voting machine issues reported at at least a dozen polling places across the city shortly after polls opened. Subsequently, the South Carolina Election Commission said late Tuesday that it wanted a partial hand-count audit of the election results. Such audits are common, but the state commission said Tuesday it wanted to select the precincts that are audited and observe the process. That audit will likely happen Wednesday.
Part of the machine issue was a “human error” by the election system vendor, Election Systems & Software, in preparing the electronic poll books for the election, the state commission said. An “erroneous file” in those poll books caused some voters’ to receive an incorrect code that prevented ballots from being displayed. However, the state Election Commission also said the error from the vendor should have been caught by the Richland County Department of Elections and Voter Registration by checking the file before it was used in the election.
The machine issues reportedly were cleared up by mid-morning Tuesday.
Rickenmann had a press conference Tuesday morning raising concerns over the voting machine problems. At his campaign after-party, he said he was trying to uphold the integrity of the election.
“We wanted to make sure people felt comfortable voting,” Rickenmann said. “We were fighting for the integrity of the vote, because people were unsure.”
This story was originally published November 16, 2021 at 7:50 PM.
