See Columbia-area Statehouse GOP primary results: Shealy leads into runoff, Finlay wins (2024)

COLUMBIA— Republican voters across the Midlands picked their nominees for Statehouse races June 11, with races centered on abortion and the continued infighting within the legislature's GOP majority.

The cycle includes a primary attempt against Sen. Katrina Shealy, R-Lexington, who made national headlines as one of the "sister senators" who helped block an abortion ban with limited exceptions in 2023 and mounted an unsuccessful push against the state's current six-week ban.

While Shealy maintains she's pro-life, her votes against the abortion bans fueled challenges from preacher and conservative activist Zoe Warren and personal injury attorney Carlisle Kennedyin Senate District 23in central Lexington County.

And with Shealy falling short of the 50 percent mark, the race is heading to a June 25 runoff— making Shealy's seat quite warm indeed.

Shealy led with 4,359 votes, or 40 percent of the vote, over Kennedy, who trailed with 3,945 votes for 36.2 percent.

Warren took third with 2,587 votes for 23.8 percent.

With a runoff against Kennedy looming, Shealy signaled she was willing to turn her campaign more negative, bringing up his job as an attorneyamid controversy over the influence that legislators who are also lawyers have over picking judges.

"I tried to play fair and run on my record, but if we don't want to play fair?" she posited Tuesday night.

Shealy boasted her conservative credentials on immigration issues, and that she supports a 12-week abortion ban.

Should Kennedy topple Shealy,and other Republican "sister senators"lose their seats,the shift could help pave the way toward legislation banning abortion at conception.

Kennedy did not return request for comment from The Post and Courier.

Finlay vs. Bauer for November ballot

The Republican primaries could also be the start of a comeback story in House District 75, covering part of Forest Acres and eastern Columbia.

Former Rep. Kirkman Finlay, a farmer and restaurant owner, defeated Tracy Robins, a retired teacher, to secure the GOP nomination.

With all precincts fully reporting, Finlay led with 1,864 votes for 65.6 percent to Robins' 979 votes for 34.4 percent.

"We were able to run a really good, positive race, and talked about what Columbia needs and how we put Columbia first," he said.

Finlay lost the seat in 2022 to Rep. Heather Bauer, D-Columbia, and made anunsuccessful runto become the state's comptroller general after the office's $3.5 billion accounting error.

He'll face Bauer again in the general election.

House Majority vs. Freedom Caucus battle appears a stalemate in Lexington County

The raging GOP civil war between the state House of Representatives' Republican Caucus and the hard-right Freedom Caucus was one of the most-watched storylines heading into the Statehouse primaries.

Lexington County was a key battlefield for that fight, with GOP voters there choosing between candidates linked to House Speaker Murrell Smith's majority and the renegade faction who refused to sign onto that caucus, instead clashing with their Republican colleagues throughout the legislative session.

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But incumbent representatives held off their challengers in all five races between the two factions.

InHouse District 88, Freedom Caucus Vice Chair Rep. R.J. May, R-West Columbia, won 2,513 votes for 68.2 percent to defeat a challenge from Lorelei Graye, who had 1,172 votes for 31.8 percent.

May, a political consultant, was first elected to the House in 2020. Graye is the founder of a financial consulting firm.

In House District 85, Freedom Caucus member Rep. Jay Kilmartin, R-Columbia, won with 2,639 votes for 55.4 percent over U.S. Air Force veteran Dean Widener, who took 2,127 votes for 44.6 percent.

Kilmartin, a restaurant and cigar store owner, was first elected in 2022.

InHouse District 96, state Rep. Ryan McCabe, R-Lexington, defended the seat for the Freedom Caucus with 2,040 votes, 62.1 percent, against challenger Mike Sturkie's 1,244 votes (37.9 percent.)

Sturkie, who owns an excavation company, has aligned himself with the House majority. McCabe, a lawyer, was first elected in 2020.

The Freedom Caucus was on the offense inHouse District39.

But state Rep. Cal Forrest, a Monetta Republican in the speaker's caucus, handily secured renomination in his western Lexington and Saluda county seat with 4,221 votes for 81.5 percent of the vote against Freedom Caucus-aligned challenger Katie Hall, who tool 959 votes for 18.5 percent.

Forrest, a business owner, was first elected in 2016.

In House District 87, which covers the western half of the town of Lexington and Lake Murray, state Rep. Paula Rawl Calhoon, R-Lexington, led with 2,852 votes for 61 percent of the vote, enough of a lead to avoid a runoff. Todd Limehouse trailed with 1,203 votes for 25.7 percent, and Michael Beatty was in third with 619 votes for 13.2 percent.

Calhoon, a business owner, was first elected in 2018 and is aligned with the House majority. Beatty enthusiastically aligned himself with the Freedom Caucus.

GOP voters pick Senate candidates

In Senate District 35, stretching from Pontiac in Richland County to Sumter, Lee and Kershaw counties to the east, Republican leaders see a potential chance to pick up an open seat with the retirement of state Sen. Thomas McElveen, D-Sumter.

With all precincts reporting, Army veteran Mike Jones led with 1,939 votes for 49.5 percent, barely taking the race into a runoff with Richland Two school board member Lindsay Agostini, who trailed in second with 1,189 votes for 30.4 percent.

Former prosecutor and TV news editor Christian Allard followed with 650 votes for 16.6 percent, then local farmer Jerry Chivers with 138 votes for 3.5 percent.

The GOP runoff's winner will face the winner of a Democratic runoff in November.

In Senate District 10, which now stretches from Greenwood County into Saluda and Lexington, state Sen. Billy Garrett, R-Greenwood, and dentist Charles Bumgardner are headed to a runoff.

Garrett held 5,277 votes for 41.1 percent to Bumgardner's 2,962 votes for 23.1 percent.

Troy Simpson, a vice president in the Mid-Carolina Electric Cooperative, trailed in third with 2,496 votes for 19.4 percent, overTaylor Bell, a lawyer, who had 2,115 votes for 16.5 percent.

Garrett, a lawyer, was first elected in 2020.

Alexander Thompson contributed to this report.