Carla Schuessler is the predicted winner of the primary election for district 61
Republican Carla Schuessler is in the lead for the district 61 primary election with 2,303 votes to John Cassidy’s 1,991.
This primary election will determine who will be on the ballot along with Democratic candidate Ashlyn Preaux in the general election on Nov. 8. The winner of that election will be the South Carolina representative for District 61.
Primary election results will be unofficial until Thursday, the deadline for counties to certify their results and report them to the South Carolina Election Commission. The state will then certify the election results on Friday. Any hand-count audits of county-level results must happen on Wednesday. In the event of a candidate not receiving 50% plus-one votes, they will head to a run-off election. Those will be held June 28, and polls will be open all day.
The polls will be open Tuesday, June 14 from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. and unofficial elections results will be available Tuesday night.
Carla Schuessler and John Cassidy are the two Republican candidates. Preaux automatically advanced after the democratic primary was canceled.
“I feel really good going into it. I’m hearing very, very good things from different parts of the district,” Cassidy said.
“We feel like we have a good amount of support and we’ve worked really hard so we’re anxious to see what happens,” Schuessler said.
John Cassidy is originally from New Jersey and moved to Conway, SC to attend Coastal Carolina College, which was still a branch of the University of South Carolina at this time. After graduating, Cassidy and business partner Scott Creech founded Duplicates Ink in downtown Conway and have grown their business there for the last 30 years. This is Cassidy’s first time running for any office, but he said he was influenced to run after he saw the district now covers all of Conway.
“This came up in this new district, and that was really the appeal because it’s brand new and it covers all of downtown Conway. I have strong connections with them and loyalty because I grew my business here for 30 years and I started right downtown,” Cassidy said.
Carla Schuessler moved to Myrtle Beach after graduating from Illinois State University with a Bachelor of Science degree in Political Science. She started working in homeowners association management and was in that business for 11 years before switching to work on non-profits. Schuessler said she’s always been passionate about public service and has been involved in the community through volunteer work.
“I think the best government is the government closest to the people, and so that’s kind of been my background, finding out what matters to everyone,” Schuessler said.
This story was originally published June 14, 2022 at 7:11 PM.