Big loss for York County Council incumbent as Lancaster incumbent cruises for the win
A York County Council member lost her race for re-election, while a Lancaster County Council incumbent cruised in his.
Challenger Andy Litten defeated York County Councilwoman Allison Love and opponent Jason Amentler in a Republican primary vote Tuesday. With all 18 precincts reporting, Litten had 68% of the vote, according to unofficial results from the South Carolina Elections Commission. Love received 26% and Jason Amentler got 6%.
Litten is a North Carolina native who moved to York County more than two decades ago. He works as an engineering and operations manager for the public water supply agency serving Chester County.
Love finishes her second council term this year. She’s a lifelong York County resident and owns a jewelry business in Rock Hill. Love faced more competition Tuesday than she has thus far in her political career. She had one Republican challenger in the 2016 primaries but none in 2020. She won general elections unopposed both years.
Amentler is a Clover High School graduate and political newcomer. He works in fabrication and had no prior government work experience, which he said makes him able to go into the council role with an open mind to serve residents. He lives in Clover and works in Lake Wylie, something he said could help bridge the gap between those communities.
District 2 includes Lake Wylie and Clover. It runs from the North Carolina line at Gaston County to Campbell and Allison Creek roads on the south end. Distrist 2 has York County’s fifth biggest municipality in Clover, and one of its busiest unincorporated areas in Lake Wylie, which was more than twice Clover’s size at the 2020 Census.
All three candidates ran on platforms shaped by rapid community growth, like impacts on small business, traffic, schools and public service needs.
The race also involved ethics questions after Litten filed a complaint against Love over council votes to allocate money to the nonprofit Nation Ford Land Trust.
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Lancaster County Council
In Lancaster County, incumbent Brian Carnes handily won his county council race for District. 7.
With all precincts in, Carnes tallied 83% of the vote, according to unofficial results from the South Carolina Elections Commissions. Challenger Jarrika Coutchure collected 17%.
Carnes said he and poll runners visited each precinct in his race and he quickly learned he’d won by a wide margin win.
“I’m just thankful for all the people that supported me and helped me,” Carnes said about an hour after polls closed Tuesday. “You don’t win these things by yourself. You’ve got other people that are behind you.”
District 7 covers the Indian Land panhandle east of U.S. 521, or Charlotte Highway. It includes the massive Walnut Creek neighborhood, the Promenade at Carolina Reserve shopping center, the CrossRidge mixed-use development, the RedStone movie theater shopping center and the Red Ventures employment hub just south of the state line.
Carnes is an Indian Land native who served eight years on the Lancaster County School District board before winning his county seat. He’s now vice chairman as he finishes his third council term. Coutchure is the founder and head of school at Marvin Academy Christian School. Tuesday’s primary is Coutchure’s first run for public office.
School officials at Marvin Academy began work last year to move into Indian Land, but ran into county zoning issues at the industrial park off Fort Mill Highway where it wanted to go.
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It’s gratifying to receive so high a percentage of votes as an incumbent, Carnes said, since voters are basing their choice on a record of service. He’s also glad to return when issues such as a penny sales tax for road construction, U.S. 521 upgrades, a massive new regional park and others are still on the table.
“I think we have some of the most important issues coming up in the next few years that we’ve probably faced as a county,” Carnes said.
Carnes will run unopposed in November.
The new council seated after the general election will remain heavily Republican. Carnes will join Chairman Steve Harper in District 5 and Billy Mosteller in District 3 as unopposed Republicans. The only challenged seat this fall will pit Republican Stuart Graham and Forward Party candidate John Delfausse for District 1.
Returning council members whose seats aren’t up for election this year are Democrat Charlene McGriff in Distrct 2, Republican Jose Luis in District 4 and Republican Allen Blackmon in District6. Those council members each won seats two years ago.
Blackmon defeated fellow Republican Penry Gustafson on Tuesday for the S.C. Senate District 27 seat. Blackmon got 82% of that vote, according to unofficial results from the election commission. He faces Democrat Yokima Cureton in the general election. A special election will be held to finish the remainder of his county council term.
