Davis wins easily to take Senate District 46 representing Beaufort and Jasper Co’s.
Incumbent Republican Tom Davis easily won reelection to State Senate District 46 representing the Hilton Head area and a portion of Jasper County in Tuesday's election, outrunning Democrat Gwyneth Saunders by a margin of victory of 35% points. Davis got 46,532 votes to Saunders' 22,060 according to the unofficial total.
In the Beaufort County precincts alone Davis earned 67.9% to Saunders 32.0%, or 43,505 votes to 20,520 as of 12:10 a.m.
Senate District 46 has 95% of its precincts within Beaufort county including Hilton Head, Bluffton and Sun City. It does not include Callawassie and Spring islands. About 5% of the district falls within Jasper County where Davis garnered 3,027 votes to Saunder's 1,540 total.
Davis, 64, an attorney from Bluffton who served as a senior policy advisor and chief of staff in former Gov. Mark Sanford's administration, was returned to a fifth term in the Senate.
During the campaign, Davis said his seniority and key committee positions put him in a position of influence that helps Beaufort County get its fair share of funding for roads, K-12 schools and higher education. He is chairman of the Senate Labor, Commerce and Industry Committee and ranks 13th in seniority out of 46 Senate members.
Tuesday evening, after the polls had closed, Davis said it was his ability to influence public policy on issues residents care about such as over-development, roads and bridges, protecting the environment and getting more power on the grid that won the day.
In decades past, other counties have dominated attention and funding in Columbia including Greenville and Spartanburg and Charleston counties, Davis said. The next decade, he predicted, will be Beaufort County's time.
"We are poised right now in Columbia to really deliver some things on behalf of our constituents in Beaufort and Jasper counties," Davis said.
During the campaign, Davis said his top issues were making sure the Lowcountry gets sufficient funding for roads and education. He also said the region's "over development problem" needs to be addressed or it will overwhelm roads and pollute waterways and drive up taxes because more schools and law enforcement will be necessary.
Saunders, 72, who lives in Sun City, served in the Navy's Chief of Information Office in the Pentagon as bureau chief of the Navy Wire Service, a news service disseminating information throughout to Navy personnel around the world. After retiring from the Navy, Saunders worked for a Washington Post newspaper chain and several media outlets in Beaufort County. She was the first woman commander of the Sun City Veterans Association..
In the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court's Dobbs v. Jackson leaving the decision on abortion up to the states, Saunders made "reproductive freedom" one of the biggest planks in her campaign. She vowed to "fight tirelessly for women's freedoms."
She also said the state could not wait to take action on climate change. "People aren't going to come here if the place is under water," said Saunders, saying climate change won't just affect the environment but also the area's tourist-reliant economy. She called on the state "to establish forward-thinking, pro-active plans to protect our coastlines, marine ecosystems, and infrastructure."
