Republican J.D. Chaplin will be the next State Senator for District 29, following a recount in a race in which both candidates were separated by fewer than 300 votes after the Nov. 5 election.
The final vote count, certified on Nov. 15, gave Chaplin the win by 87 votes.
Chaplin will assume the seat held by Democratic State Sen. Gerald Malloy for 22 years. The flipped seat only deepens the GOP’s supermajority in the state legislature, which it won when the Republican party gained a supermajority in the Senate. The party already had a supermajority in the South Carolina House of Representatives.
The flip reverses the results of 2020, when Malloy and Chaplin first faced off for the District 29 seat, covering Marlboro and Darlington counties, plus parts of Lee, Sumter, and Chesterfield counties. That year, Malloy received 54% of the vote against Chaplin. Previously, Malloy had run unopposed.
Following last week’s general election, the race between Chaplin and Malloy was one of two Senate seats forced into automatic recount – which happens when the margin between candidates is less than 1%. Out of more than 49,500 votes cast, Chaplin and Malloy were separated by 287.
Democratic State Sen. Mike Fanning last week conceded his loss—by 29 votes – to Republican challenger Everett Stubbs in District 17, thereby circumventing any recount.
Malloy did not concede, so the recount went ahead as scheduled Thursday. The final tally was 24,838 votes for Chaplin and 24,751 votes for Malloy.
Even before the official recount commenced, the South Carolina Senate Majority Caucus provided Chaplin with orientation Thursday.
Malloy first took office in 2003 and serves on Senate committees on banking and insurance, education, ethics, judiciary, legislative oversight, rules, and transportation. He did not return calls for comment for this story.
The only other recount in the state following the 2024 general election was in the Fire District of the Piedmont Service Area, in Greenville and Anderson counties, where five candidates faced a recount for two available seats.
Rudy Rhodes and Beth Owens Dickson will serve on that commission following Thursday’s recount.
