U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham fought off a challenge from fellow Republican Buddy Witherspoon in Tuesday's South Carolina primary and in November will face Democrat Michael Cone or Bob Conley, who were in a tightly contested race late Tuesday.
Tom Young, who received the most votes in the District 81 seat but failed to secure at least 50 percent of the vote, said he was excited about being in the runoff, and noted that he came close to winning the primary outright. But with four candidates vying for the Republican nod, he said, he expected a runoff.
"Now we'll work real hard to win in two weeks," he said.
His opponent, current Aiken County Councilman Scott Singer, said with the race down to just two candidates, the focus can now be on the issues.
"Now that it's just down to the two of us, we can get rid of the sideshow," he said.
The runoff election will be in two weeks.
TUESDAY'S PRIMARY RESULTS
With 37 of 46 counties reporting (Remaining counties were voting only in federal contests):
U.S. SENATE
Republican
- Lindsay Graham (I): 137,382
- Buddy Witherspoon: 69,859
Democrat
- Bob Conley: 62,596
- Michael Cone: 62,191
U.S. CONGRESS DISTRICT 2
Republican
- Joe Wilson (I): 43,867
- Phil Black: 7,619
Democrat
- Robert Miller: 14,119
- Blaine Lotz: 7,364
STATE HOUSE 81
Republican
- Tom Young: 2,728
- Scott Singer: 2,223
- Brad Boni: 767
- John Kelly: 102
STATE SENATE DISTRICT 24
- Greg Ryberg (I): 6,668
- Jason Whinghter: 3,225
HOUSE DISTRICT 83
- Don Smith (I): 2,094
- Jim Whitehead: 792
STATE SENATE DISTRICT 25
- Greg Anderson: 2,497
- Travis Johnson: 1,082
HOUSE DISTRICT 96
- Kit Spires (I): 1,404
- Mike Miller: 716
AIKEN COUNTY TREASURER
- Linda Sharpe (I): 9,392
- John Hexamer: 2,807
Note: (I) is incumbent
-- Staff reports
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