Burdette and Cash advance to runoff in S.C. Senate primary

Former Pendleton Mayor Carol Burdette and Powdersville businessman Richard Cash will meet in an April 25 Republican runoff for the South Carolina Senate District 3 seat.

Burdette received 31 percent of votes in Tuesday's GOP primary, compared with 26 percent for Cash. A runoff is needed to settle the contest since no candidate collected a majority of the votes.

Burdette and Cash both said they were pleased with the outcome of the primary.

"I am really, really honored by the people who came out to vote for me," said Burdette, who is president the United Way of Anderson County.

Cash said he was excited to make the runoff in a "hard-fought race."

Cash said voters in the runoff will have a clear choice between "a life-long conservative Republican and a Lindsey Graham-type Republican."

Former state Rep. John Tucker finished third in the eight-person race with 23 percent of the votes.

A total of 7,880 votes were cast, a turnout of almost 11 percent.

Since no Democrats are running, the winner of the Republican runoff is almost certain to win a May 30 special election for the seat that Lt. Gov. Kevin Bryant gave up in January. The winner of the special election will serve the remainder of Bryant's term, which ends in 2020.

District 3 covers the northern half of Anderson County.

Tucker collected the most in campaign contributions for the primary with $49,145, followed by Cash with $33,975 and Burdette with $26,130. Each of the three candidates spent campaign money to run TV ads touting their campaigns.

Efforts to repairs South Carolina's roads and ethics reform were the dominant issues in the weeks leading up to Tuesday's primary.

Follow Kirk Brown on Twitter @KirkBrown_AIM

Results of S.C. Senate District 3 Republican primary

Candidate          Votes      Percent

Carol Burdette    2,400        31
Richard Cash     2,030        26
John Tucker       1,821        23
James Galyean     840        11
Don Bowen           313         4
Brad Johnson       293          4
Dean Allen             90          1
Corey Bott             79          1