The State endorsement: Our choice in the Columbia City Council District Four race
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The State Endorsements
Early voting for Columbia’s Nov. 4 elections has begun, and the special election in Lexington County in State House District 88 is Oct. 21 with a potential runoff election Nov. 4. Here are The McClatchy South Carolina Editorial Board’s endorsements.
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The State endorsement: Our choice in the SC House District 88 Republican primary
The State endorsement: Our choice in the Columbia mayor’s race
The State endorsement: Our choice in the at-large Columbia City Council race
The State endorsement: Our choice in the Columbia City Council District Four race
The State endorsement: Our choice in the Columbia City Council District One race
Three candidates are vying for voters’ attention to represent Columbia City Council District Four in the Tuesday, Nov. 4 election. The district covers the city’s eastern communities like Crosshill, Kings Grant and Lake Katherine, among others, and early voting begins Monday, Oct. 20.
Incumbent Peter M. Brown was elected in 2023 to complete Councilman Joe Taylor’s term after he died in office. Brown runs the Columbia-based sign company Colite and is a former chair of the South Carolina Jobs and Economic Development Authority. He easily defeated 10-year Richland 1 school board member Beatrice King to win the seat. Now, he’s facing community volunteer and retired public health professional Julie Lumpkin and social worker Ashley McCall.
The McClatchy South Carolina Editorial Board is making endorsements in races for mayor and three City Council seats in Columbia after interviewing the candidates and independently researching them and their backgrounds.
In the City Council District Four race, one candidate rose above the rest. Ultimately, a vote for either Brown, 60; Lumpkin, 73; or McCall, 32, would be a fine decision, but we thought Lumpkin showed the deepest understanding and the most solutions-oriented mindset in the council race.
Lumpkin’s thoughtful, substantive answers to our candidate Q&A stood out from her opponents’ replies. McCall’s paled in comparison, and Brown’s answers were surprisingly short on substance and specifics. Asked to directly address several issues — from improving public safety to protecting a nearly $25 million investment in Finlay Park to listing one budget cut and one new expense that was necessary, and why — Brown offered general, non-responsive answers.
If you didn’t know which candidate was the incumbent, it would be easy to read the three Q&As and guess that it was Lumpkin. Asked which unmentioned issue deserves more attention, Brown answered, “How much good stuff is going on in Columbia? … Columbia is on a roll, and it is not an accident.” He added, “It is time that the media recognize the progress as well.”
Columbia is on the rise, but, like any American city, it has issues. And our open-ended question was designed to test each candidate’s knowledge of those problems as well as how they think.
We thought that Lumpkin aced the assignment and showed that she might be a different kind of council member. “The city needs to establish a more intentional relationship with its neighborhoods, rebuild relationships and generate reciprocal dialogue and problem-solving,” she told us. “In District 4 many neighborhood associations are actively seeking to maintain and improve their neighborhoods. They would welcome more involvement from their Council representative, and I plan to be very involved. As their councilwoman, I will be very involved.”
McCall’s answer to the same question was equally holistic. She’d focus more on community health and well-being, which she called the “thread that ties everything together.” Yet given the totality of their answers, that response didn’t give McCall, who has a master’s degree in social work, the edge over Lumpkin, who has a master’s of science degree in public health.
McCall’s voter records also show she votes infrequently, skipping city general elections in 2019, 2021 and 2023. Lumpkin and Brown have long voting histories and rarely miss elections.
Lumpkin also offered a far more detailed answer when asked about the state’s recent threat to withhold millions of dollars in funding from the city if it didn’t repeal its conversion therapy ban.
Brown and McCall gave stock answers about case-by-case scenarios while Lumpkin offered a full-throated defense of “home rule” protections that the city weakened by overturning its ban. She also said she would have considered offers from outside lawyers to represent Columbia pro bono to “argue that the state was overstepping its authority in threatening” the city.
Overall, Lumpkin’s answers impressed our board as much as any of the 30 Q&As we reviewed in a range of state and local races this fall. She demonstrated an ability to see the big picture and the detailed view of numerous issues, raising concerns about flood resiliency, sexual assaults against women, eviction filings, homeless people camping in woods and in open fields near city homes, residents’ frustrations about reporting poor road conditions and even the need for active shooter protocols and designated safe harbors at the newly renovated Finlay Park.
In the end, Lumpkin’s closing argument in her Q&A made our endorsement an open-and-shut case.
“I have a keen understanding of how the public and private sector can work together to produce great outcomes,” she said as she explained how she worked at the state health department and a scientific consulting firm. “I can apply the same organizational and communication skills on City Council. If elected to serve District 4, I’ll reply to text messages, emails and phone calls. I’ll follow up with folks and connect them with those on city staff or on Council, or other resources to assist them. Where neighborhoods have specific concerns, I can facilitate problem-solving, convene neighborhood listening sessions and develop a plan of action together.”
Given Brown’s terse replies, we think Lumpkin would be a more responsive council member.
The McClatchy South Carolina Editorial Board endorses Julie Lumpkin for Columbia City Council District Four.
BEHIND THE STORY
MOREHow we do endorsements
Members of The McClatchy South Carolina Editorial Board interviewed and researched candidates running for mayor and City Council in Columbia and Myrtle Beach and in a special election in SC House District 88 in Lexington County in 2025. We based endorsements on our reporting and fact-checking — and on each candidate’s achievements, background, character, demeanor and experience.
The endorsements were made by South Carolina Opinion Editor Matthew T. Hall, a Columbia resident; Sherry Beasley, a longtime educator and Columbia resident; Toni Etheridge, a strategic advisor and writer who lives in Forest Acres; Paul Osmundson, a retired senior editor at The State and a Forest Acres resident; and Pat Robertson, a retired editor and outdoors columnist who lives in Blythewood.
If you have questions or comments about our endorsements, please email Hall at mhall@thestate.com.
