The Republican nominee vying to represent a Lexington County seat in the South Carolina House will be John Lastinger after the pastor won a GOP runoff Tuesday, according to unofficial election results.
Lastinger will face Democrat J. Chuck Hightower, a U.S. Army veteran, in the Dec. 23 general election to fill an unexpired term of a Republican-leaning district, House District 88.
The winner will succeed former state Republican Rep. RJ May for one year. The House is up for reelection in 2026.
May resigned his seat in August before pleading guilty to five counts of distributing child pornography. May will be sentenced to federal prison in January.
Unofficial results showed Lastinger with 52.4% of the vote, and his challenger, business owner and veteran Brian Duncan with 47.6% of the vote out of 2,613 voters.
Lastinger told WIS faith fueled his run for the Statehouse.
“Thirty-five years God has been prepping me for this so we can see one nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all,” Lastinger told the television outlet.
Here are the results in two other Statehouse races.
House District 21
The GOP runoff for House District 21 that will fill the vacancy left open by Greenville Republican Rep. Bobby Cox appears headed to an automatic recount, according to unofficial election results.
Results showed Dianne Mitchell, a former teacher and former president of the Greenville Republican Women’s Club, with 50.4% of the vote to 49.6% reported by Steve Nail, the dean of Anderson University's College of Business and Economics.
The State Election Commission showed 3,050 people voted in the runoff.
The Post and Courier reported Mitchell declared victory in the runoff, telling the news outlet her team is confident in the results.
There is no Democrat in the race.
The winner will succeed Cox, who resigned his seat to run for the Senate but later announced he would not run.
House District 98
Sonja Ogletree-Satani will be the Democratic nominee in a January special election to succeed former Republican state Rep. Chris Murphy.
Unofficial election results showed Satani, an entrepreneur and Air Force veteran, with 57.7% of the vote in the three-way race.
“I’m honored and humbled to be the Democratic nominee for District 98,” Ogletree-Satani said in a provided statement. “We’re building a campaign focused on education and the economy and we look forward to bringing our message to voters across Dorchester County.”
On the Republican side, the race is headed to a runoff after none of the candidates won enough votes to avoid another primary race.
Businessman Brian Hill, with 43.3% of the vote, will face Air Force veteran Greg Ford, with 39.4% of the vote, in a Nov. 18 runoff.
Results showed 1,522 people in the Democratic primary, and 1,713 people voted in the Republican primary.
The special election for House District 98 will fill the vacancy opened by Murphy, a former chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, who resigned in August.
The special election is Jan. 6.
This story will be updated.
