It's official. Following a runoff election and vote certification process, a Republican will become the next mayor of Charleston, South Carolina.
Despite the Palmetto State's GOP-lean statewide, Tuesday's election marks the first time Republicans won Charleston's mayoral race since the Reconstruction Era.
Municipal elections in the city are technically nonpartisan, although the two candidates' partisan affiliations are well known.
William Cogswell, a former GOP state lawmaker, defeated incumbent Democrat John Tecklenburg, who endorsed Joe Biden ahead of the 2020 South Carolina Democratic presidential primary.
A self-described moderate, Cogswell won the endorsement of South Carolina's leading Republican officials, including Sen. Tim Scott.
As NBC News reports:
Charleston last elected a Republican mayor in the 1870s, according to historical records from the city and other municipal areas. Republicans including state GOP Chairman Drew McKissick and U.S. Rep. Russell Fry, who served in the state House with Cogswell, celebrated the GOP win in social media posts and statements.
“We can confidently say that I'm going to be the next mayor,” Cogswell said Tuesday night, as final results came in. “The people have spoken, and we're ready for a new direction … a new direction that puts labels aside, so that we can find pragmatic solutions to our problems.”
In a concession speech Tuesday night, Teckleburg called his eight years as mayor “the honor of my life” and asked his supporters to rally around the new mayor.
“I'd like to congratulate our new Mayor-Elect William Cogswell … and I'd like to ask each and every Charlestonian, everybody out there, to give him your support,” Tecklenburg said. “When Mayor Cogswell succeeds, Charleston succeeds, and that's something we're all in favor of.”
In sharp contrast to the red hue emanating from most of South Carolina, Charleston has emerged as a liberal enclave in recent years.
In 2021, Republican Daniel Rickenmann won the mayoral race in Columbia, South Carolina, despite Joe Biden winning 68.4% of the vote in Richland County one year prior.
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