Leilani Bessinger

Republican Party

Leilani T. Bessinger was a2015Republican special election candidate forDistrict 45 of theSouth Carolina State Senate.^[1] She withdrew from the race before the Republican primary.^[1]

Bessinger was a2012Republican candidate forDistrict 45 of theSouth Carolina State Senate.

Elections

2015

See also:South Carolina state legislative special elections, 2015

Aspecial election for the position ofSouth Carolina State Senate District 45 was called for October 20. A primary election took place on September 1. A primary runoff election took place on September 15. The filing deadline for candidates wishing to run in this election was July 13.^[1]

The seat was vacant following the death ofClementa Pinckney (D) on June 17, 2015, in a mass shooting at an AME church in Charleston, South Carolina.^[2]

Margie Bright Matthews,R. Keith Horton,Richmond Truesdale,Korey Williams,John E. Washington,Kenneth Hodges,William Bowman,Chauncey Barnwell,Sheree Darien,Libbie Henry Green andKent Fletcher faced off in the Democratic primary. Since no candidate received more than 50 percent of the vote, the top two vote-getters, Bright Matthews and Hodges, met in a runoff election, which Bright Matthews won.^[3]Alberto Fernandez was unopposed in the Republican primary.Leilani Bessinger withdrew from the race before the Republican primary.^[1][4] Bright Matthews defeated Fernandez in the special election.^[5]

South Carolina State Senate, District 45, Special election, 2015
Party		Candidate	Vote %	Votes
	Democratic	Margie Bright Matthews	88.5%	5,763
	Republican	Alberto Fernandez	11.5%	750
	Write-ins	Write-ins	0%	2
Total Votes				6,515

South Carolina State Senate, District 45, Democratic Runoff, 2015
Party		Candidate	Vote %	Votes
	Democratic	Margie Bright Matthews	56.2%	3,908
	Democratic	Kenneth Hodges	43.8%	3,042
Total Votes				6,950

South Carolina State Senate, District 45 Democratic Primary, 2015
Candidate	Vote %	Votes
Margie Bright Matthews (advanced to runoff)	36.9%	2,622
Kenneth Hodges (advanced to runoff)	34.7%	2,467
Korey Williams	9.3%	663
Kent Fletcher	4.4%	316
William Bowman	4%	288
Sheree Darien	3.6%	253
R. Keith Horton	3.4%	245
John E. Washington	1.4%	99
Libbie Henry Green	1.1%	78
Chauncey Barnwell	0.7%	53
Richmond Truesdale	0.4%	29
Total Votes		7,113

2012

See also:South Carolina State Senate elections, 2012

Bessinger ran in the2012 election forSouth Carolina State Senate District 45. She ran unopposed in the Republican primary on June 12. IncumbentClementa Pinckney (D) ran unopposed in the Democratic primary. The general election took place on November 6, 2012 where Bessinger was defeated by incumbentClementa Pinckney.^[6][7][8]

South Carolina State Senate, District 45, General Election, 2012

Party		Candidate	Vote %	Votes
	Democratic	Clementa PinckneyIncumbent	66.1%	26,825
	Republican	Leilani Bessinger	33.6%	13,652
	Other	Write-Ins	0.3%	110
Total Votes				40,587

Recent news

This section links to a Google news search for the term "Leilani + Bessinger + South + Carolina + Senate"

See also

• South Carolina State Senate
• South Carolina State Senate District 45
• State legislative elections, 2015
• South Carolina State Legislature

External links

Suggest a link

• Candidate list

Footnotes

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