2025 runoff election results: Who will serve on Myrtle Beach City Council?

Correction: This story is being updated to correctly attribute information to a city council candidate. (Updated 10:46 a.m. Nov. 19, 2025)

Myrtle Beach voters returned to the ballot box Tuesday to fill the remaining two city council seats, voting in Jackie Hatley and Phil Render from 2026 to 2030, based on preliminary results.

Nick Vaugh failed to woo enough voters for a council spot.

Although incumbent councilman Mike Lowder garnered enough support in the general election to secure another council term, Hatley, Render and Vaugh advanced to a runoff election.

Lowder declined to answer questions on election night about priorities for serving another term.

According to the unofficial count, Myrtle Beach cast 6,726 ballots in the runoff, down significantly from the 21,271 city council votes submitted for the Nov. 4 election.

Some 2,635 Myrtle Beach residents cast ballots for Render, who received 39.18% of the vote.

With 20 years of Myrtle Beach City Council experience, retired dentist and former councilman Phil Render chose not to seek reelection in 2023 and instead let new leadership take the reins. But in his return campaign, Render said he was compelled to seek office again to start city budgeting discussions earlier and manage the city’s debt, borrowing and operating expenditures.

“I want to drill down on the budget, this is the city manager’s budget, and start those discussions earlier, maybe as early as December,” Render said.

Heading into his sixth term, Render found his reelection and support was “humbling.” Render said, beyond addressing the city’s finances, he hopes to help expand residents’ access to primary care physicians and get elected officials more involved in ad hoc meetings with city staff.

In 2026, incumbent councilwoman Hatley will start her third Myrtle Beach City Council term. Her campaign spoke to addressing crime, improving government transparency, controlling growth and supporting new businesses.

“It’s all about, the communication with our council now, and I think we’re going to be going down a really good path to turn Myrtle Beach around, not that we were in a wrong direction to begin with, but sometimes you have to pivot when things aren’t working, you have to pivot and go a different direction,” Hatley said. “So I’m looking forward to that.”

Hatley won 2,445 votes, securing 36.35% of the vote. For her third term, she plans to work to find solutions for “weaknesses” in Myrtle Beach.

“We need to be a little bit more business friendly, for one thing. We need to make it easier for people to be able to get in business, stay in business, be in business and just, we need to embrace the business community,” said Hatley. “There’s too much red tape right now, and it shouldn’t take as long as it’s taking to get people to a place where they can do business.”

Vaugh is co-founder of the Vaugh Spadaccini Hospitality Group, with restaurants like Sol y Luna Cantina and Crave Italian Oven and Bar, Vaugh served one term on city council in Ogdensburg, New York, more than a decade ago.

For his first Myrtle Beach campaign, Vaugh said he was committed to increasing public safety, fiscal responsibility and accountability.

But with 1,646 ballots, Vaugh’s 24.47% of the vote wasn’t enough to carry him to Myrtle Beach City Council.

Voters have cast their ballots, but the votes aren’t official until the Horry County Voter Registration and Elections Board certifies them. Election Commissioners will meet to certify the election results at City Hall on Thursday, Nov. 20, at 10 a.m.

This story was originally published November 18, 2025 at 8:17 PM.