Yahoo Finance WATCH: Who will be the next mayor of Columbia? Join The State’s mayoral forum
The four candidates for Columbia mayor are set to participate in a virtual candidate forum hosted by The State.
The forum will be at 7 p.m. Wednesday, and can be viewed at thestate.com/columbiamayoralforum on Facebook or YouTube. The event will be moderated by The State’s Opinion Editor, Trudi Gilfillian. Candidates will answer questions in several categories, including public safety, economic development and equal opportunity.
Also, several students from Richland School District One, the largest public school district in the city, will be submitting questions for the forum.
The 2021 Columbia mayoral race has been effectively rolling since February, when third-term Mayor Steve Benjamin announced he would not seek re-election, creating the most clear pathway to the mayor’s office for a newcomer in more than a decade.
Four hopefuls have filed to seek the seat: former District 3 City Councilman Moe Baddourah, at-large City Councilwoman Tameika Isaac Devine, Sam Johnson, a former chief of staff to Benjamin, and District 4 City Councilman Daniel Rickenmann.
The city’s election is on Nov. 2. If no candidate gets more than 50% of the vote, the top two finishers will have a runoff election on Nov. 16.
Aside from mayor, other Columbia seats up for election this year include District 1, District 4 and an at-large post.
Moe Baddourah
Former District 3 Councilman
Tameika Isaac Devine
At-large City Councilwoman
Sam Johnson
Former Chief of Staff to Mayor Benjamin
Daniel Rickenmann
District 4 City Councilman
Moderated by South Carolina Opinion Editor Trudi Gilfillian. Read more of Trudi’s opinion pieces here.
