Nurse practitioner and Air Force National Guard officer Sheri Biggs has edged evangelical minister and televangelist Mark Burns in their June 25 runoff election in South Carolina’s Congressional District 3 (CD 3).
Ms. Biggs had garnered 51.1 percent of the tally, 27,649 votes, to Mr. Burns’ 48.9 percent, 26,474 votes when the race was called by the Associated Press about 9:20 p.m. EST with 95 percent of ballots counted.
The two were among eight Republican candidates in June 11’s South Carolina primary scrum for the open seat being vacated by Rep. Jeff Duncan (R-S.C.), who announced in early 2024 he would not seek an eighth term.
In South Carolina, a candidate must earn 50 percent plus one to win a party nod in a primary. If not, the top two hopefuls meet again in a runoff.
On June 11, Mr. Burns finished first with 33 percent of the tally, while Ms. Biggs took second with 28 percent. They traded places in the runoff, with Ms. Biggs taking the race by more than 1,100 votes.
Ms. Biggs was endorsed by Republican South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster. If elected in November, she will join Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) as the state’s second GOP woman to serve in the House.
Former President Donald Trump backed Mr. Burns. If he had been elected, he would have become the second black Republican elected to the U.S. House since Reconstruction.
There was little daylight in their policy positions that adhered to standard Republican campaign planks other than which would be better in advancing a conservative agenda under a second Trump administration.
Mr. Burns, who lost a 2022 congressional campaign in CD 4, portrayed himself as a “junkyard dog” for the America First agenda. Ms. Biggs, a first-time candidate, said her aim was to “heal our nation” in moving legislation.
Ms. Biggs will be an overwhelming favorite in November’s general election against Democrat Byron Best and the Alliance Party’s Michael Bedenbaugh.
CD 1, in northwest South Carolina, has the highest ratio of Republican voters among the state’s seven congressional districts. The Palmetto State’s congressional delegation is now a 6-1 GOP bloc.
