30-year-old newcomer will join Lexington Town Council after special election win
Lexington’s newest town councilman is a 30-year-old marketing director who previously worked for both Nikki Haley and Donald Trump.
Gavin Smith was chosen as Lexington’s newest town council member in a special election on Tuesday, provisional results show.
Smith won 40% of the vote in a race with four candidates.
Smith grew up in Lexington, graduating from White Knoll High School in 2010 and the University of South Carolina in 2016. He previously worked as an executive aide in the governor’s office under Haley before he joined the communications team for Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign. Smith went on to serve as press secretary for the U.S. Department of Labor and deputy communications director at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in the Trump administration.
Smith is now the CEO of the Gavin James Group marketing and public relations firm, and serves as communications director for the cybersecurity firm PC Matic.
“To have grown up here and to now have the opportunity to serve on council is a full circle moment for me,” Smith said. “I’m grateful the citizens have trusted me with this office.”
Smith will fill the seat left vacated by former councilman Steve Baker, who resigned in February when he took a job out of state. Smith will hold the at-large, townwide seat on the seven-person council until the November 2025 election.
Smith said he knocked on thousands of doors over the impromptu springtime campaign, hearing complaints about traffic, parking and overdevelopment in the growing community.
But some had more specific concerns. He spoke to “a handicapped individual who finds it hard to go downtown, because there’s not enough handicapped parking,” Smith said. He wants to focus on “making our alleyways more walkable, making it easy for a handicapped person to travel down the alleyways.”
Other candidates in the race were former council member Constance Fleming, marketer Edwin Gerace, and home renovations company owner Matthew Graham. Gerace won 28% of the vote, Fleming 22% and Graham 9%, provisional results show.
Lexington voters will go back to the voting booth this November, when the mayor and three other council seats — currently held by Hazel Livingston, Kathy Maness, and Todd Lyles — are up for election.
This story was originally published May 2, 2023 at 9:26 PM.
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