Runoffs were held Tuesday in several South Carolina contests.
One of the most hotly contested races was here in the Midlands in Senate District 23, where incumbent Senator Jake Knotts took on challenger Katrina Shealy.
Congressman Joe Wilson and Governor Mark Sanford took different sides in the race, endorsing Knotts and Shealy, respectively.
Knotts won that runoff with 57 percent of the vote compared to Katrina Shealy's 43 percent. The race was characterized by the influx of big bucks from outside groups taking sides in the campaign. A high-profile TV ad war was waged in the two weeks between the June 10 primary and Tuesday's runoff.
At a victory party Tuesday night in Gilbert, Knotts fired back at Governor Mark Sanford and critics who tried to knock him out of the election.
Standing on a picnic table in the middle of hundreds of supporters Knotts said, "The P in my vocabulary stands for people, not party, not politics, not partisanship. It stands for people, because you the people are what make me tick."
Election officials predicted a record runoff turnout for the Knotts-Shealy race, and their predictions were right. 12,360 votes were cast in the Senate District 23 runoff, which accounts for roughly 20 percent of the registered voters.
TV Station Profiles & Public Inspection Files forWACH