COLUMBIA, S.C. — The ancient South Carolina town of Charleston has elected its first Republican mayor since the Reconstruction Era.
William Cogswell, previously a Republican state lawmaker, defeated incumbent Democratic Mayor John Tecklenburg by way of about 2 share issues in Tuesday’s runoff, consistent with the South Carolina Election Commission. Results posted on-line by way of the fee confirmed a 569-vote margin keeping apart the the 2 applicants.
Cogswell, 48, had secured probably the most votes within the Nov. 7 basic election however no longer a majority, which means that he and Tecklenburg headed to Tuesday’s runoff.
Charleston’s municipal elections are technically nonpartisan. But Tecklenburg is a well known determine within the state’s Democratic politics, endorsing Joe Biden in South Carolina’s pivotal 2020 presidential number one.
Cogswell, who served 3 phrases as a Republican within the state House and describes himself as a average, earned endorsements from others inside of South Carolina’s GOP political circles, together with Sen Tim Scott.
Charleston remaining elected a Republican mayor within the 1870s, consistent with ancient data from town and different municipal spaces. Republicans together with state GOP Chairman Drew McKissick and U.S. Rep. Russell Fry, who served within the state House with Cogswell, celebrated the GOP win in social media posts and statements.
“We can confidently say that I’m going to be the next mayor,” Cogswell mentioned Tuesday evening, as ultimate effects got here in. “The people have spoken, and we’re ready for a new direction … a new direction that puts labels aside, so that we can find pragmatic solutions to our problems.”
In a concession speech Tuesday evening, Teckleburg known as his 8 years as mayor “the honor of my life” and requested his supporters to rally across the new mayor.
“I’d like to congratulate our new Mayor-Elect William Cogswell … and I’d like to ask each and every Charlestonian, everybody out there, to give him your support,” Tecklenburg said. “When Mayor Cogswell succeeds, Charleston succeeds, and that’s something we’re all in favor of.”
The City of Charleston has grow to be the second one reliably blue space in South Carolina — the place Republicans dominate congressional and statewide politics — to make a choice a Republican mayor lately. In 2021, Daniel Rickenmann, an established town council member subsidized by way of Republicans, used to be selected because the mayor of South Carolina’s capital town of Columbia.
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Meg Kinnard will also be reached at http://twitter.com/MegKinnardAP
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