At least three running for Horry County Council District 6 seat

A lone Republican signed up to run for the Horry County Council District 6 seat on the first day filing opened, but at least two other GOP candidates have expressed interest in the post.

Kirk Hanna, a 36-year-old general contractor, paid his $280 filing fee Friday afternoon. He’s never pursued public office before.

“This is all new to me,” he said. “I’m not a politician. I’m a hard worker.”

District 6 covers the Socastee and Forestbrook areas. A special election is needed for the seat previously held by Bob Grabowski, who committed suicide on March 31. Grabowski had served the district for more than 10 years.

Filing for the race will close at noon on April 27. A primary will be held on June 16 and a general election is slated for Aug 4.

In recent weeks, real estate agent Blaine Garren and businessman Cam Crawford have announced their campaigns for the seat.

Hanna, a Socastee native who owns Hanco Construction, said he’s lived in the area all his life and hopes his community ties will resonate with voters.

“My roots are here,” he said. “The people of District 6 need somebody that has a vested interest in the community.”

Hanna’s platform isn’t developed yet, but he’s campaigning on his knowledge of Socastee and his reputation as a small businessman.

“I’m not a career politician,” he said. “So I haven’t sat down and done a huge campaign elevator speech like everyone tells me to do. All I can tell you is I’m a hard worker.”

Garren, also an Horry County native, declared his candidacy through a news release last week. In his announcement, Garren said he was a close friend of Grabowski’s and hopes to continue to pursue the late councilman’s goals.

“[I] worked with him on each of his three campaigns for the District 6 seat,” Garren said. “It’s important that the people of District 6 have a strong voice on council, one that will protect the heritage of the Socastee area as Horry County continues to grow.”

Garren said his campaign will focus on supporting law enforcement (he’s a reserve deputy with the Horry County Sheriff’s Office) and small business. He owns Whitestone Properties in Forestbrook.

Crawford announced his bid this week. The Socastee resident — and husband of state Rep. Heather Ammons Crawford — said that if elected he would attempt to foster cooperation between different levels of government. He’s also interested in improving public safety and economic development.

“Between our community’s need for higher paying jobs to addressing crime related issues and infrastructure needs, District 6 needs a County Councilman who can work effectively with both the public and our elected officials at all levels of government to solve problems,” he said in a news release. “I can do that for our community!”

Crawford co-owns a local communications company.

All three candidates are campaigning on their connections to the district. And name recognition will be important in a race that likely will see a low turnout, said Chip Brown, who teaches politics and government at Coastal Carolina University.

“These kinds of elections have the same sort of problem that most local elections have — just magnified a little bit,” he said. “Who can get the people out? It’s an off-year election. It’s a local election. There’s no big issue to draw people to the polls.”

Brown said national races often draw more impressive voter numbers, but the role local leaders play shouldn’t be ignored.

“Unfortunately, people don’t think local issues are big issues,” he said. “My thinking is it’s actually the reverse. Some of the biggest issues are local issues because they so directly affect citizens on a day-to-day basis in a real way.”

This story was originally published April 17, 2015 at 7:39 PM with the headline "At least three running for Horry County Council District 6 seat."