S.C. Senate District 35 runoffs reveal November ballot: Democrat Graham, Republican Jones

Sumter and Lee counties had two races in the same district be decided in a runoff Tuesday, June 25, setting the November general election for the District 35 seat in the state Senate.

Jeffrey R. Graham, a Camden resident, secured 24 more votes according to the unofficial results than his opponent, Austin B. Floyd Jr., of Sumter, in the runoff primary race to earn the Democratic nomination. Of the 3,558 votes cast, 50.34% went to Graham, or 1,791, leaving Floyd with 49.66%, or 1,767 votes.

Graham said he and his team are humbled by his "apparent victory," a nod to the automatic recount initiated by state law when candidates come within 1% of each other's totals. The results were certified on Friday.

Graham called Floyd a friend and the recount “a good thing. Free and fair elections are at the heart of our democracy, and I support the recount.”

“As we await the final results, I wanted to take this moment to thank Austin for running a race that focused on substance and the issues that matter to the people of State Senate District 35. He is an effective leader and a good man,” Graham told The Sumter Item. “Our Democratic primary showed that there is much more that unites the two of us and our supporters than divides us. No matter who is declared the winner of our race, I look forward to working with Austin this fall to make sure that the voices of all voters in our district are heard.”

Graham is poised to face Mike Jones, also a Camden resident, who secured the Republican nomination with 70.81%, or 1,921 votes, over Lindsay Agostini, of Richland, whose 792 votes represented 29.19%.

No candidates earned a majority of votes during the June 11 primary, leading to this week’s runoff between the top two vote-getters in each race.

The Senate seat featured no current elected officials after three-term Sen. Thomas McElveen announced earlier this year he would not seek reelection to spend more time with his family and practicing law in Sumter. When he was elected in 2013, he was the youngest senator in South Carolina at the time.

“There’s still a lot of gas in my tank, and there’s plenty of fight in this dog,” McElveen said June 5 in a formal farewell address to the state Senate at the Statehouse in Columbia. “I don’t know what’s next, but I do know and have complete faith that God will open the next doors for me and my family simply because of the fact that He always has.”

District 35 includes parts of Sumter, Kershaw, Richland and Lee counties.

Sumter voters supported one winner and one loser, with 66.02% of Republican runoff voters giving Jones their vote while 64.07% of Democratic ballots were cast for Floyd.

In Lee County, the same candidates were supported, with 92.79% of Republican voters backing Jones and 61.8% of Democratic voters backing Floyd.

The general election, which will include this race, local-level partisan and nonpartisan races and national races such as the presidential ballot, will be Tuesday, Nov. 5.

Editor’s note: An earlier online-only version of this story, which has been taken down, reflected Austin Floyd Jr.’s Sumter votes as securing the overall nomination. It has been changed to reflect votes from the whole district.