Interest building for Myrtle Beach area seat on Horry County Council

The race to replace Marion Foxworth is on.

Filing for the longtime Democrat’s former Horry County Council seat opens at noon Friday, and local political leaders insist there’s growing interest in the post.

“I’ve had five people talk to me so far,” said Robert Rabon, the Horry County GOP chairman. “I don’t know how many will actually file.”

The new council member will represent District 3, which covers much of the city of Myrtle Beach as well as a small portion of Carolina Forest.

Candidates have until noon on Sept. 14 to file, said Dena Huggins, a supervisor in the Horry County Voter Registration and Elections Office. The filing fee is $159.66.

Primaries will be held on Nov. 3 with runoffs, if necessary, on Nov. 17. The general election is scheduled for Dec. 22.

Foxworth was elected to the post in 2002 and kept it until Aug. 18 when he stepped down to accept the position of register of deeds.

The job is one of three hired by county council. The former register, Ballery Skipper, stepped down in March after 21 years in office.

In recent weeks, the local GOP has heard from a variety of potential candidates, Rabon said, adding that he’s been pleased with the diversity of the field.

“To show you how far things have come and how sick everybody is of Obama, I’ve had four blacks talk to me about running as Republicans,” he said. “They’re getting educated. They see that Obama’s too much talk. One guy told me, ‘Obama’s done nothing for the black man. He’s been a disaster for us.’”

Although the seat was in Democratic hands for nearly 14 years, Rabon said Foxworth did face some tough political challenges. He also pointed out that the school board representative for District 3 is a Republican.

“Definitely, there is a very, very good chance it’ll be Republican,” he said of the county council seat.

Local Democrats, however, are not ready to give up the post, though they’re still searching for candidates.

“We’re talking to several people,” said Joan Furlong, chairwoman of the Horry County Democratic Party. “We will see how it develops over the next few days.”

Unlike most local elections, which are essentially decided after the primaries, the District 3 race could be a battle, said Chip Brown, a Coastal Carolina University political scientist.

“If a Democrat has been able to hold on to that seat for this long a time, the right Democrat might have a good chance,” he said. “But I would suspect that it would be highly contested simply because the Republicans see an opening and they don’t have an incumbent to run against.”

For voters, Brown said, this type of race could be beneficial.

“It would actually be refreshing to see a contested general election,” he said. “We’d have to talk about issues instead of just sailing in on our partisan credentials.”

This story was originally published September 3, 2015 at 6:11 PM with the headline "Interest building for Myrtle Beach area seat on Horry County Council."