Incumbent Luke Rankin will likely return to SC Senate after contentious race

The highly-contested race for the District 33 seat in the South Carolina Senate is over: incumbent Sen. Luke Rankin is likely heading back to Columbia after defeating challenger John Gallman.

Rankin won by 1,792 votes while securing 58 percent of the ballots cast, according to Horry County Election Director Sandy Martin’s announcement of unofficial results.

Voter turnout was at 8 percent countywide.

During the June 9 Republican primaries, neither Rankin nor Gallman secured a majority of the votes, sending the race into a runoff. The highly contentious race garnered statewide attention given the combative advertisements and because Rankin is a senior member of the state Senate.

During the past few weeks, the race focused on allegations of domestic violence against Gallman that originally surfaced on social media, Rankin’s sealed divorce records and the involvement of “dark money” in the election.

District 33 includes parts of Carolina Forest, Forestbrook, Conway and Myrtle Beach.

First elected in 1993, Rankin serves as the chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee. His platform included education reform, finding a money-saving solution to the Santee Cooper issue and using state funds to improve infrastructure in Horry County.

Gallman declared his candidacy earlier this year, running on a campaign advocating for judicial reform, anti-abortion policies, finding a free market solution to Santee Cooper and supporting the Second Amendment.

Beth Calhoun won the Horry County auditor race with 57 percent of the vote, and Mark Causey won the Horry County District 9 race with 59 percent of the vote.

Results will be finalized Thursday when the Horry County Board of Elections certifies the election. With no Democratic challengers declared, this runoff is likely the deciding factor for the election.

Here are the unofficial results from Tuesday’s election:

SC Senate District 33 Republican Primary

• Luke Rankin - 6,222
• John Gallman - 4,430

Horry County Council District 9 Republican Primary

• Mark Causey - 975
• Terry Fowler - 658

Horry County Auditor Republican Primary

• Beth Calhoun - 10,464
• R A Johnson - 7,822

This story was originally published June 23, 2020 at 9:34 PM.

Tyler Fleming

The Sun News

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Development and Horry County reporter Tyler Fleming joined The Sun News in May of 2018. He covers other stuff too, like reporting on beer, bears, breaking news and Coastal Carolina University. He graduated from The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2018 and was the 2017-18 editor-in-chief of The Daily Tar Heel. He has won (and lost) several college journalism awards.