Live updates: Here’s who won their election and who came up short
Irmo opts for familiar faces
Updated 10:56 p.m.
In a crowded field for the Irmo Town Council, voters opted for familiar faces. Preliminary results would return Barb Waldman and Gabriel Penfiled to the council with fresh four-year terms. Read the full results here.
— Bristow Marchant, bmarchant@thestate.com
Batesburg-Leesville headed to a runoff in mayor’s race
Updated 10:34 p.m.
Voters in Batesburg-Leesville couldn’t decide from between four candidates to replace outgoing mayor Lancer Shull. With no candidate winning more than 50% of the vote, the top two will head to a runoff. Find out who here
— Bristow Marchant, bmarchant@thestate.com
Tiffany Aull wins Cayce District 1
Updated 10:30 p.m.
Longtime educator and Lexington 2 employee Tiffany Aull defeated Ron Wright for the District 1 seat in Cayce, unofficial results showed.
Aull will be one of two new faces to city council, after newcomer Alice Rose upset incumbent Hunter Sox in District 3.
— Hannah Wade, hwade@thestate.com
Lastinger wins GOP nomination in District 88
Updated at 9:57 p.m.
With all precincts reporting, John Lastinger has won the Republican nomination to replace former state Rep. RJ May in state House District 88, according to unofficial results.
Lastinger received 1,370 votes. Brian Duncan received 1,243 votes.
“We’re excited and ready to get to work,” Lastinger said in an interview Tuesday night.
Lastinger goes on to face Democrat Joseph “Chuck” Hightower in a Dec. 23 special election.
— Joseph Bustos, jbustos@thestate.com
Successor chosen for late Chapin mayor
Updated 9:59 p.m.
Voters in Chapin have chosen a successor to Mayor Al Koon, who was listed on the ballot today even though he died two weeks earlier. See results here.
— Bristow Marchant, bmarchant@thestate.com
Town of Lexington sees all three incumbents reelected
Updated 9:45 p.m.
The town of Lexington saw all three of its incumbents reelected to at-large seats, unofficial results showed.
With more than 7,000 votes cast and all precincts reporting, Gavin Smith, Ron Williams and Todd Carnes were reelected to their seats. Newcomer Doug Leonard and former candidate Greg Brewer had run against them. Leonard received 12% of the vote and Brewer received 17%.
— Hannah Wade, hwade@thestate.com
Columbia City Council race stays close, more ballots counted in other races
UPDATED 9:45 P.M.
The race for a citywide Columbia City Council seat is close, with challenger Sam Johnson ahead of incumbent Aditi Bussells with 7,134 votes counted so far, to Bussells’ 6,509, as of 9:30 p.m. If neither candidate receives more than 50% of the vote once all ballots are counted the race will go to a runoff election.
In that race, Jared Johnson is in third with 913 votes, and Tony Bowen has received 503 votes, of those counted so far.
In the race for Mayor, incumbent Daniel Rickenmann has a strong lead, with more than 7,000 votes, nearly 62% of ballots counted so far. His challengers Jessica Thomas and Wade Fulmer have 32% of the vote, and 5% of the vote, respectively.
In Columbia’s District 1, incumbent Tina Herbert has 63% of the vote, with 1,775 ballots counted in her favor as of 9:30 p.m. Her challenger, Christa Williams, had 1,027 votes by that time.
In Columbia’s District 4, incumbent Peter Brown had just shy of 47% of the vote, with 2,530 ballots counted in his favor as of 9:30 p.m. Challengers Julie Lumpkin, 32% of the vote, and Ashley McCall, 24% of the vote, trailed behind.
– Morgan Hughes, mhughes@thestate.com
Phyllis Cookie Holmes wins West Columbia District 5
Updated 9:18 p.m.
Phyllis Cookie Holmes will take the West Columbia District 5 seat left vacant after the city’s Mayor Pro-Tem Mickey Pringle decided not to run for reelection. She was up against 23-year-old Kiaun Jacquez Moore.
With all precincts for the district reporting, Holmes won with 62% of the vote. She received 72 of the 116 votes. Moore received 36. Brad Robinson, who dropped out, was still listed on the ballot and received 7 votes.
The other three seats included unopposed incumbents.
— Hannah Wade, hwade@thestate.com
Alice Rose wins in Cayce District 3
Updated 9:09 p.m.
Newcomer Alice Rose beat out incumbent Hunter Sox in Cayce District 3, unofficial results showed. All five precincts for the district are reporting.
Rose got 54% of the vote to Sox’s 45%. Rose, a stay-at-home mom and former restaurant worker, decided to run after a hotel began being built behind her neighborhood.
— Hannah Wade, hwade@thestate.com
Batesburg-Leesville update
Updated 8:48 p.m.
A flood of votes from the Holstons precinct in Saluda County has pushed Town Councilman Steve Cain into second place for a potential runoff in the Batesburg-Leesville mayor’s race. Cain has 35% of the total vote to fellow Town Councilman David Bouknight’s 40%. Greg Moseley had 13% of the vote, while Larry McConnaughhay has 10%.
— Bristow Marchant, bmarchant@thestate.com
District 88 margin grows
Updated 8:45 p.m.:
With 12 out of 17 precincts reporting, John Lastinger is pulling away as his lead over Brian Duncan grew to more than 100 votes in state House District 88.
Lastinger leads 1,034 votes to 930 votes.
— Joseph Bustos, jbustos@thestate.com
Early results in Cayce
Updated 8:35 p.m.
With three of five precincts reporting in District 3, newcomer Alice Rose has pulled ahead of incumbent Hunter Sox by 16 votes. So far, only 105 votes have been counted. Of the 14 votes counted in District 1, Tiffany Aull has pulled ahead of Ron Wright.
— Hannah Wade, hwade@thestate.com
Irmo Town Council
Early results from the town of Irmo has Town Councilwoman Barb Waldman leading the at-large race with 36% of the vote. But the second of two at-large seats is a tight contest, with incumbent Gabe Penfield tied with George Frazier at 18% each. With three Lexington County precincts and four out of nine Richland precincts reporting, both candidates have 13 votes each.
— Bristow Marchant, bmarchant@thestate.com
District 88 totals coming in
Updated: 8:26 p.m.
With 7 out of 17 precincts reporting, Brian Duncan has narrowed John Lastinger’s lead to 31 votes. Lastinger leads 767-736. Duncan has performed slightly better in day-of voting.
— Joseph Bustos, jbustos@thestate.com
Mayor of Batesburg-Leesville
Updated 8:16 p.m.
In the four-way mayor’s race, Town Councilman David Bouknight leads with 45% of the vote with the three precincts in Lexington County reporting. Larry McConnaughhay is in second with 25%, which means he could force a runoff if Bouknight is held under 50% of the vote. Fellow Town Councilman Steve Cain is in third with 20% of the vote, and Greg Moseley had 9%. The vote in the Saluda County side of town is still outstanding.
— Bristow Marchant, bmarchant@thestate.com
Lexington early results
Updated 8:08 p.m.
With just under 4,000 votes counted so far, the town of Lexington’s three incumbents – Gavin Smith, Ron Williams and Todd Carnes – have pulled ahead of both Greg Brewer and Doug Leonard in the run for at-large seats.
Williams has 22.23% of the votes, Smith has 22.84% and Carnes has 22.23%. Brewer is following around 200 votes behind at 17.32% and Leonard at around 300 votes behind at 13.58%.
-Hannah Wade, hwade@thestate.com
District 88 early vote totals
Updated 7:55 p.m.
John Lastinger has an early lead over Brian Duncan as the early vote totals come in the District 88 Republican runoff in Lexington County.
Lastinger, a pastor, had 163 votes to Duncan’s 122 votes.
- Joseph Bustos, jbustos@thestate.com
Columbia City Council early results
UPDATED 7:40 P.M.
Early results are in for Columbia City Council races.
With just over 2,000 ballots counted so far, incumbent Mayor Daniel Rickenmann is ahead with 1,252 votes, 61% of counted ballots in the mayor’s race.
Jessica Thomas trails with 654 votes and 32% of ballots counted. Wade Fulmer has 121 votes, about 6% of the ballots.
In the at-large race, Sam Johnson leads with 1,007 ballots, just short of 50% of the vote. Incumbent Aditi Bussells trails with 824 votes, or about 41% of the total ballots counted so far. Jared Johnson is in third place with about 6% of the vote, and Tony Bowen has so far won just over 3% of the ballots counted as of 7:30 p.m.
In District 1, incumbent Tina Herbert is in the lead with 60% of the votes counted so far, with Christa Williams trailing with 40% of the vote, with a total of 368 ballots counted as of 7:30 p.m.
And in District 4, incumbent Peter Brown is in the lead with about 48% of the vote, with Julie Lumpkin trailing behind with about 32% of the vote, and Ashley McCall in third with just under 20% of the vote, with 702 ballots counted in that race so far. Columbia voters Tuesday will decide the fate of four city council seats up for re-election this year.
– Morgan Hughes, mhughes@thestate.com
Four Columbia City Council seats are up for reelection
Columbia Mayor Daniel Rickenmann is running to keep his seat. Jessica Thomas and Wade Fulmer are running to oust the mayor, who is finishing his first term in the role. Rickenmann previously served 14 years as a council member.
Aditi Bussells is running to keep her seat as a city-wide at-large council member. Sam Johnson, once chief of staff to former Columbia Mayor Steve Benjamin, and Jared Johnson, a local activist and co-owner of All Good Books in Five Points, are the two candidates running against Bussells.
Council members Tina Herbert and Peter Brown, who represent the city districts 1 and 4, respectively, are also running to keep their seats.
Christa Williams, a perennial candidate for local elected offices, is challenging Herbert for the District 1 seat, which includes a portion of North Columbia and much of the 20203 zip code.
Peter Brown’s challengers include social worker and tech entrepreneur Ashley McCall, and former DHEC public health expert Julie Lumpkin.
The candidates for Columbia City Council elaborated on their ideas for the city in questionnaires previously published by The State. Find those here: District 1, District 4, At-large, Mayor. Richland County early-voting totals show 2,013 people cast ballots prior to election day this year.
Across Lexington County, a dozen cities and towns are holding elections on Tuesday, including seven that will be electing a mayor
Voters in Chapin are in the unusual position of having a candidate for mayor listed on the ballot, incumbent Al Koon, who passed away two weeks before the election. Two other candidates, retired homebuilder Ron Colley and pastor Bill Mitchell, are also running for mayor in Chapin. The Lexington County elections office previously said votes for Koon will not be counted, and the late mayor’s family is encouraging voters to cast a write-in vote for Town Councilman Gregg White, who is also running for re-election to his council seat.
In Springdale, incumbent Mayor Juston Ricard is running for another term against engineer Chad Owens.
In Batesburg-Leesville, four candidates are running to replace outgoing Mayor Lancer Shull. In Irmo, six candidates are vying for two at-large seats on the town council.
The city of Cayce will see at least one new face on its council come January, after its mayor pro tem decided not to run for reelection. In District 1, longtime educator Tiffany Aull is running against retired state employee Ron Wright. In District 3, newcomer Alice Rose is going up against incumbent Hunter Sox.
One seat in West Columbia will be a battle between two newcomers after incumbent Mickey Pringle chose not to seek reelection. Kiaun Jacquez Moore and Phyllis Cookie Holmes are running for that District 5 seat. The three other seats, held by incumbents, do not have challengers.
In the town of Lexington, three at-large seats are up for grabs and five men are running for them. The three incumbents are Gavin Smith, Ron Williams and Todd Carnes. Greg Brewer, who has previously run for town council, and Doug Leonard are running to unseat one of the three incumbents.
Other municipalities having elections on Tuesday are Gilbert, Pelion, Pine Ridge, Summit and Swansea.
Candidates in towns and cities in Lexington County elaborated on their ideas in questionnaires previously published by The State. Find those here: Lexington, Chapin, Batesburg-Leesville, Irmo, Cayce, West Columbia and Springdale.
SC House District 88 runoff race
Lexington County Republican voters also are picking a nominee to replace former state Rep. RJ May, who resigned in August and pleaded guilty to distributing child pornography. A runoff between Brian Duncan and John Lastinger is taking place in Tuesday’s elections. The winner of the GOP nomination will go on to a special election on Dec. 23 against Joseph “Chuck” Hightower, the Democratic nominee.
Where to check voter registration?
Voters can check their registration and polling place, and get a sample ballot, at SCVotes.gov. Polling places will be open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. By state law, anyone standing in line at 7 p.m. will still be allowed to vote.
Voters will be asked to provide one of five forms of photo ID: a South Carolina driver’s license, an ID card issued by the Department of Motor Vehicles, a voter registration card with photo, federal military ID, or a passport.
This story was originally published November 4, 2025 at 11:11 AM.