The 2022 Midterm elections are happening this November, with many of the major elections taking most of the attention.
While many may focus on the elections for the United States House and Senate and the Governors’ races, it is important to take time to also focus on the localized elections, such as council members.
What follows will be the elections that impact the residential areas surrounding Wofford College, in which many commuter or local students have the ability to vote.
At the Spartanburg County council level, three of the seven seats are currently up for election.
In the northeast region of the county, District 2 has incumbent Jack Marby running, while in the northwest of the county incumbent Bob Walker is running for District 5. In the center of the county, incumbent Jessica Coker is running.
All three of these candidates won their Republican primaries in June of this year.
The Spartanburg County government building is located across from
Wofford College on North Church Street. The county government also includes 29 boards and committees on a range of issues, some of which county council members are also members of.
There are a few other uncontested elections, including all state house districts within Spartanburg County, with Districts 31 through 38 having incumbent candidates except for District 37, where Rob Harris defeated the current incumbent in the
June primaries.
For party affiliation, District 31’s candidate, Rosalyn Henderson-Myers is a Democratic party candidate while all the other seven are running with the Republican party.
Beyond just elections, the city of Spartanburg has 14 boards and commissions ranging from three- to six-year appointment terms.
Of these 14, six boards and commissions currently have one or two
vacancies.
The City Council also formed an ad-hoc Morgan Square Redevelopment Committee this July with 13 members whose goal is to create recommendations for enhancements for Morgan Square. This has strong potential of affecting Wofford students because of the likelihood of students to congregate in this area, especially on the weekends.
On a larger scale, South Carolina has three major elections coming up this November. South Carolina’s 4th United States House of Representatives district has a Republican incumbent running against Michael Chandler of the Constitution Party and Lee Turner running as an independent write-in candidate.
For US Senate elections, Republican incumbent Tim Scott is running against three other candidates. Krystle Matthews is running for the Democratic party after winning the Democratic run-off in June. Jesse Harper is running with the Independent American Party and Larry Adams Jr. is running independently.
For the gubernatorial election, Republican Governor Henry McMaster and Lieutenant Governor Pamela Evette are up for reelection. Joe Cunningham and Tally Parham Casey are running with the democratic party after Cunningham won a five-way primary in June.
Morgan Bruce Reeves is the only third-party candidate and is running with the Libertarian Party.
Though most elections in the state of South Carolina have historically rarely shifted party lines outside of major party shifts, many of the non-incumbent candidates running for these races hope to be able to redefine South Carolina politics.
Though the South Carolina State House and Senate are going to maintain their current party makeup, the future of how many issues such as marijuana criminalization, gun reform, climate change and others are handled by South Carolina.
Wofford College is approaching political issues through a series of guest speakers on campus, assisting students in finding their own political stance.
Joe Cunningham visited campus on Oct. 19 as a part of his college tours, hosted by Wofford Democrats. Mike Pence visited campus on Oct. 18 as a part of the Hipp lecture series as well.

Cameron Carsten, staff writer