CONWAY, SC (WBTW) – Johnny Gardner, called “the People’s Candidate” by supporters, will take over as Horry County Council Chairman, according to preliminary numbers.
According to Tuesday’s preliminary primary numbers, Gardner received 192 more votes than incumbent Mark Lazarus in the Republican primary for county chair.
Lazarus has served as chair for the past five years. Gardner is an attorney who has never held office before.
Gardner says he’s excited after a stressful night of checking vote totals.
“We feel great,” Gardner said. “We’re grateful, we’re humbled, we’re thankful. I’m still trying to get all the excitement. It’s been up and down with the numbers coming back in, but we’re told it’s official and we’re grateful.”
Lazarus ran his campaign on the new jobs brought to the county during his term, as well as “record-breaking investments in public safety,” according to his campaign Facebook page.
Gardner had the backing of firefighters and police officers, who took issue with Lazarus after repeated battles of mandatory overtime and salaries.
“We want to make Horry County safe again,” Gardner said. “We’ve said it from the very beginning. It’s resonated with the voters. Public safety, priority one, day one.”
In the most recent heated display of frustration, Lazarus abruptly left a candidates forum in the Burgess Community just five days before the election. Lazarus called the first responders who criticized and jeered him “thugs.”
He stood by that term in an interview Monday.
“The ones that I said were thugs, they acted like thugs,” Lazarus said in a follow-up interview. “It was a handful of them that were there specifically to disrupt.”
Gardner received 12,252 votes compared to Lazarus’ 12,058 votes, according to results from the county election website.
Gardner says one of his focuses as chair is to improve transparency in the county’s government.
“Sunshine is the best disinfectant,” Gardner said. “We want to get it out in the open. It does two things. It motivates us to make us do a good job because we have someone grading us. It inspires confidence in the public with what the government is doing, especially with their money.”
Gardner says he wants to encourage growth in the county, but also wants new housing built carefully.
“What we want to do is work on impact fees,” he said. “So when the developer builds a new development, it will pay for the impact that development will have on that community.”
It’s expected that Gardner will take the county chair seat as there are no democratic candidates.
You can view the complete primary results here.
