The South Carolina special election for former U.S. Rep. Mick Mulvaney's seat will see another vote after two Republicans were forced into a runoff in their primary Tuesday.
State Rep. Tommy Pope, the South Carolina Speaker Pro Tem, will face Ralph Norman, a former state representative in a May 16 Republican primary runoff after they were the top two vote-getters for Mulvaney's District 5 seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, The State newspaper reported.
The seat opened up when Mulvaney left his Congressional seat to become the White House budget director in President Donald Trump's administration, The Associated Press noted.
Pope edged Norman in the seven-person Republican field by a slim 118 votes, 11,900 to 11,782, for 30 percent each, according to WLTX-TV. Tom Mullikin received 20 percent of the vote (7,734) while Chad Connelly grabbed 14 percent (5,536).
Pope entered the race with the support of South Carolina House Speaker Jay Lucas, agriculture commissioner Hugh Weathers and more than 30 law enforcement officials.
Norman urged on his supporters in a Facebook post.
Archie Parnell received 13,323 to win 70 percent of the vote in the Democratic primary. Parnell, a former Goldman Sachs tax adviser, will face the winner of the Republican runoff in the June 20 general election for the seat, according to The State.
While Democrats have targeted the Congressional district as a potential pickup, The State pointed out that Republicans outnumber Democrats 2-1 in the district. Mulvaney won re-election for the seat last November, beating Democratic challenger Fran Person by 20 percentage points, according to The State.
Mulvaney was a member of the House Freedom Caucus and viewed as a fiscal conservative before he was selected to work at the White House. The Freedom Caucus, which has played a prominent role in back-and-forth about repealing Obamacare, is made up of the most conservative members of the House.
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