Tuesday, 2025 Upstate Republican Lee Bright won his former seat in one of three special GOP primaries in South Carolina on October 21. It was seen above in 2025. May 3 at the state GOP convention in an unsuccessful bid to win the state Republican Party chairmanship. (File photo by Shaun Chornobroff/SC Daily Gazette)
The former South Carolina GOP senator appears to have regained the Upstate seat he lost nine years ago.
Firebrand Republican Lee Bright won just 51% of the 5,008 votes cast, according to uncertified results released by the state Board of Elections, over two opponents in one of three primaries Tuesday to fill vacant seats in the Legislature.
With no Democratic opponent in December, Bright is on track to win the December special election, which will be held two days before Christmas.
Meanwhile, contests for the other two State House seats will be held on November 4.
That includes the Lexington County race to replace former Rep. RJ May, founder of the uber-conservative Freedom Caucus, who resigned in August before pleading guilty to distributing videos of children being sexually abused. May’s sentencing is scheduled for January.
Upstate, Bright was seeking to replace state Sen. Roger Nutt, whose resignation after being diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease coincided with the day May’s letter reached the House speaker.
in 2024 in June Nutt defeated Bright in the GOP primary runoff to win the deep-red seat that represents parts of Greenville and Spartanburg counties between the two major cities. Nutt, an engineer from Moore, became a senator after two terms in the House of Representatives.
Then, at the state GOP convention in May, Bright unsuccessfully challenged state GOP Chairman Drew McKissick to lead the state’s dominant party.
After Nutt resigned, Bright tried again for the Senate, winning a three-way special primary.
He again edged out Hope Blackley, former district director for U.S. Rep. William Timmons and former Spartanburg County Clerk of Court, who finished third in last year’s four-way GOP primary. According to unofficial results, she got about 27% of the votes this time.
Justin Bradley, a former Spartanburg County Councilman, was endorsed by the state GOP but finished third with about 22%.
Senate Majority Leader Shane Massey said the caucus backed Bradley because its members believe “he’s a very strong conservative problem-solver, and we need people who are interested in solving problems, not creating them.”
But in the end, Bright was able to get his supporters to the polls in special elections, which typically have lower voter turnout, Massey said.
“Decisions are made by people who show up,” said the Edgefield Republican.
Just over 6% of the district’s registered voters cast ballots in Tuesday’s Senate election, according to the state Election Commission.
“Bathroom Bill” Senator
Bright, who runs an insurance company, was first elected to the Senate by voters in 2008.
in 2016 running for a third term, Bright lost the seat to attorney Scott Talley, opposing then-Gov. Nikki Haley and the state chamber of commerce on what has been dubbed the “bathroom bill.”
His bill, introduced two months before the 2016 primaries, actually had no chance of passing it. But it got a lot of attention because it mimicked a North Carolina law requiring people to use public bathrooms that corresponded to their gender at birth. The national blow to North Carolina included the loss of major business deals due to the law, which was eventually repealed.
Not wanting a repeat in the Palmetto State, the South Carolina Chamber of Commerce’s political committee ran radio ads against Bright, calling the transgender bathroom bill a time-wasting political stunt. Haley opposed Bright and his bill as unnecessary.
Eight years later, lawmakers passed a similar law on public school bathrooms.
Bright also fought unsuccessfully to keep the Confederate flag on the Statehouse grounds.
After 2015 June 17 In the wake of the massacre at Mother Emauel African Methodist Episcopal Church in downtown Charleston, when a white supremacist shot and killed nine black people after a Wednesday prayer service, the legislature voted to permanently remove the flag from the front lawn of the statehouse. Bright was among three senators who voted no.
Bright lost in 2016. in a primary runoff with Talley, then a member of the state House of Representatives from Spartanburg.
After Talley decided not to seek a third term, he asked Nutt to run in 2024 to succeed him.
Upstate House Races
As Talley did with Nutt, Nutt approached Rep. Bobby Cox, asking the Greer Republican to run in an off-election year race for the vacant seat.
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Cox resigned from the House, which represents parts of Greenville County, to seek a Senate nomination, triggering another special election in the House, but withdrew altogether a few weeks later.
The race to replace Cox is the next GOP runoff scheduled for Nov. 4, after none of the four Republicans topped 50% in the primary.
Dianne Mitchell, a former teacher with the support of the state House Freedom Caucus, will take on Steve Nail, dean of Anderson University’s College of Business and Economics. Nail won about 39% of the 2,212 votes, while Mitchell earned about 37%.
“After seven years, it was strange not to see my name on the ballot,” said Cox, the 90th person in his district to cast his vote in the House on Tuesday.
Cox told the SC Daily Gazette that he resigned the same day Nutt resigned in order to save taxpayers the cost of another special election, as well as to avoid the 2026 election. voters in his district would not be without representation at the start of the legislative session.
Cox, a former Army Ranger, said he retired from the Senate after an unexpected increase in his workload as head of government relations for Sig Sauer, a German-headquartered weapons manufacturer.
“While I regret stepping down, I did not have the time to put in the effort necessary to become the current candidate,” Cox said.
He said his business trips have taken him to four countries in the past month and a half.
“And making a living for my family comes first,” Cox said.
Cox, who has served four combat tours in Iraq, won his first parliamentary seat in 2018 when he made national news by skydiving in his campaign ad. He called his decision to leave the House “bittersweet,” but said the same hectic work schedule that kept him from campaigning also affected his role in the Statehouse.
Still, Cox said he has “no intention of giving up on politics” and plans to run again when the time is right.
Replaces RJ May
In Midland, a man who launched a write-in campaign last fall after news of a federal investigation into May and had no ballot opposition will face a candidate backed by another Lexington County lawmaker in the Freedom primary.
Former candidate Brian Duncan of Red Bank received 38% of the 1,488 votes counted Tuesday. He will face off against John Lastinger, who received 40% of the vote in the four-seat race, according to unofficial tallies.
Lastinger, lead pastor of The Edge Church, is supported by Rep. Jay Kilmartin of Irm. Kilmartin said Lastinger was an active member of the Lexington County GOP, and Kilmartin’s wife worked with Lastinger’s campaign.
Kilmartin did not know if Lastinger would join the Freedom Party.
“I think he’s solid,” Kilmartin said.
Both Duncan and the third-place candidate in the race, Lorelei Graye, have the support of the House GOP, House Majority Leader Davey Hiott told the SC Daily Gazette.
GOP runoffs are expected to determine the winners of both House special elections. No Democrats are seeking to replace Cox in Greenville County. A primary was not required for the Lexington County seat because only one Democrat is running. But the district is ruby red.
There is one more special election left, this one in the Low Country.
Six candidates — three Republicans and three Democrats — are vying to fill the vacancy created by the August resignation of Summerville Republican Rep. Chris Murphy, the former chairman of the House Judiciary Committee.
“It’s an area that has changed drastically over the years; it’s gone purple,” Hiott said.
President Donald Trump in 2024 won the district by only about 6 percentage points, Hiott said. That compares to Trump’s 18-point statewide victory.
Early voting is open now until 5 p.m. on Halloween. The primary race will take place on November 4, the same day as the second round of the other two races.
The final election for the Dorchester County seat will be held in 2026. January 6
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