Meet the Horry County Republican primary candidates seeking their party’s nomination
The June 9 South Carolina Statewide primaries are just around the corner. While this election season has been unlike any other, the democratic process continues despite an ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
The Sun News sent a short questionnaire to all candidates seeking elected office this election season. Every candidate received the same questions emailed to the email they included in public election filing documents. Reporters with The Sun News took the answers and wrote summaries of the top priorities for each candidate, past political experience and what voters needed to know about the candidates.
This article includes just information for people running in contested party primaries. A full list of candidates seeking positions in November can be found on myrtlebeachonline.com and survey results from candidates not in a contested race may be used in future election stories.
Here are the candidates for Horry County elected official races:
Clerk of Court - Republican Primary
Incumbent Renee Norris Elvis, who grew up on a farm in Conway, has served as the elected Horry County Clerk of Court for more than three years following 12 years at the Sheriff’s office and 25 years in the private sector. She’s proud of her office’s customer service and ability to save the taxpayers money, though they still have room to improve their technological capabilities. As she promised when she was first running for office, she pledges to listen to residents and work hard to make any needed improvements.
Challenger Angie Altman-Robbins, who grew up primarily in Conway, has been a court clerk for 10 years and a paralegal and title searcher for 13 years, while also working on numerous political campaigns for the past few decades. She graduated from Coastal Carolina University with a Bachelor’s degree in Interdisciplinary Studies with a focus on Business and Education. She wants to reopen the office’s switchboard in the atrium to help those without computer access and offer increased staff training in teamwork, diversity inclusion and cross-training. One of her primary goals would be to make customer service the heart of the Clerk of Court’s office.
Auditor - Republican Primary
Incumbent Lois Eargle is not seeking re-election.
R.A. Johnson, who grew up in western Horry County, is the currently the county’s deputy treasurer, and he was brought in to the office to help streamline the tax process and help implement new tech upgrades, including the printing of license plate decals within the Treasurer’s office to avoid unnecessary trips to the DMV for taxpayers. He has a lot of admiration for current County Auditor Lois Eargle, and he wants to keep the great team she has in place, while providing additional technological tools to improve convenience for taxpayers. His campaign promise is “to bridge Old Values with New Technology.”
Beth Calhoun, a lifelong Horry County resident who grew up in Conway, has worked in the Auditor’s Office nearly 20 years and in federal and state government for seven years. She has served on the Student Improvement Council for Horry County Schools and graduated from Horry County’s Leadership Development program. Her primary goal is to increase taxpayers’ understanding of the role of the Auditor’s Office, and she wants maintain the knowledgeable and qualified staff, use her experience to help day-to-day operations and focus on computer securities checks and balances as required by state law.
Clark Parker did not respond to the survey. You can learn more about him on his Facebook page.
This story was originally published June 6, 2020 at 1:25 PM.
