Politicians, outsiders & a last-minute challenger: Myrtle Beach’s mayor race is on

“The city’s a disaster,” one Myrtle Beach mayoral candidate told The Sun News. “Our reputation is at stake,” another said. “Nobody does any due diligence,” said a third challenger.

The Myrtle Beach mayoral race is officially on and candidates are raising concerns about safety, spending and tourism.

With a mix of three politically experienced candidates and outside options, this year’s race opened with three contenders, with a fourth joining later. On Sept. 5, the last day to file, the field grew to five when a surprise challenger submitted his candidacy and signed a lease in Myrtle Beach.

With a crowd of candidates to parse — and passionate criticism of each other’s campaigns — here’s what we know about the players in this year’s Myrtle Beach mayoral race.

Local leaders in the race

The day the filing period opened, Mayor Brenda Bethune, former Myrtle Beach public information officer Mark Kruea and realtor Eva Perez Rigney submitted their candidacies.

As the incumbent, Bethune sees a potential third term as an opportunity to extend the work from her first and second terms. The mayor said working with developers for properties east of Kings Highway purchased by the city would be “major focus for the next term,” and touted a 50% drop in violent crime, which she attributed to investments like the multi-million-dollar Real Time Crime Center.

“If people choose me again to continue in this role, I am just as committed as I was from day one to work very, very hard to put public safety first, to build a strong economy that focuses on smart growth, to continue with the downtown revitalization that is already well underway, and … putting investments in infrastructure that works.”

But other candidates have taken aim at safety and budgeting under Bethune’s leadership. Kruea says when he retired last April after 26 years as a city spokesperson, a mayoral campaign wasn’t in his plans.

“I’m doing this because it needs to be done, and it needs to be done now,” Kruea said. “Our reputation is at stake. We’ve had negative national publicity this year. We focused so much on the downtown 10 blocks that we’ve ignored the rest of the city. We aren’t listening to the business community.”

Citing concerns with city spending and transparency, Kruea said he couldn’t justify $30 million for a 300-seat theater downtown and called for the Myrtle Beach City Council to be more involved in the budget process, accusing the group of “basically just rubber-stamping” city manager Jonathon “Fox” Simons’ recommended budget.

As mayor, Kruea said he would revisit the Tourism Development Fee (TDF) to change state law that requires 80% of revenue generated be used to promote tourism. In its current form, the TDF will effectively become a tax hike, Kruea said.

“We’re giving 80%, about $40 million of that to the Chamber of Commerce, and of the 20% that’s left, city council in this budget year used all of that for the property tax credit, plus had to supplement [the homeowners tax credit] with another $1.2 million from other revenue sources,” said Kruea. “If we do not fix the TDF distribution soon, next year the property tax credit is going to be cut, and that will feel like and actually be an effective tax increase for our residents.”

Outsider contenders

Others see the local leaders inside Myrtle Beach politics as hindrances to the city.

“They’re all just a homogeneous group where one says this [and] everybody follows. Nobody does any due diligence, deep thinking, deep consideration of what is really good for our community,” Perez Rigney said. “They all just listen to the city manager who wants to put together their ideas, and it’s not even the elected people’s ideas. It’s his. I’m not like that.”

Perez Rigney, a realtor originally from the Philippines with a background in education and business, believes her “outside the box” strategies will bring necessary change to make Myrtle Beach a safe, fun and beautiful city.

Those ideas include putting plain clothes officers on patrol in crowds, using pictures of people with criminal histories from nearby cities to get alerts with facial recognition technology, building parking lots vertically to preserve land and banning cars and weapons along the Boardwalk and Promenade. From 9th Avenue South to Riptydz on North Ocean Boulevard, Perez Rigney envisions a foot-traffic-only area similar to Louisville’s Fourth Street Live.

One other candidate without a background in politics threw his name in the mix, Daniel Aumen, a handyman and mechanic who’s served as a platoon soldier in the South Carolina State Guard since April, according to his LinkedIn.

“I’m interested in listening to what everybody has to say and making sure that nobody gets left out because these days everything is divided … Everybody’s trying to get their own agenda taken care of, but what’s not looking like it’s being done is some people are getting left out, and we have to make sure that everybody gets heard,” Aumen said.

As mayor, Aumen said he would be interested in rebuilding the bygone Myrtle Beach Pavilion, increasing outreach for adult education and improving services for veterans, those on low incomes and disabled, elderly and homeless people.

A last-minute challenger

The field seemed set with those four candidates until Sept. 5, when former Mayor Mark McBride submitted his candidacy and signed a lease in Myrtle Beach. It’s unclear why McBride waited until the deadline — he said only that was the way he chose to run his campaign.

Although McBride settled in Salem, South Carolina, for a couple of years before moving back, he has plenty of history with the city. McBride was on the City Council for four years before serving as mayor from 1998 to 2005. In this election, McBride criticized his politically established opponents, saying Bethune resorts to excuses in the aftermath of shootings and other incidents and accusing Kruea of hiding city problems from the public.

“The city’s a disaster,” McBride said. “It’s not safe, and it’s all catching up with us. Tourism is down … the government bureaucracy has just exploded under Mayor Bethune.”

Like Kruea, the city’s tourism development fee is a top issue for McBride. Of the 80% of TDF revenue that goes to advertising, McBride wants to put 50% into police salaries to hire 150 officers. McBride also touted a need for overhauls across city departments, saying Police Chief Amy Prock “has to go” and criticizing some salaries, like that of city manager Simons, in City Hall.

How to cast a vote

With five candidates in the race, Myrtle Beach will vote to choose who leads the city for the next four years on Tuesday, Nov. 4.

For those who aren’t registered to vote, the deadline is Saturday, Oct. 4. Voters can sign up, check their registration status and find their polling place at scvotes.org.

This story was originally published September 11, 2025 at 5:30 AM.