William Cogswell won a nail-biting race with a margin of fewer than 600 votes in a city known for its Southern hospitality and charm.
CHARLESTON, S.C.—A city known best for its tourist attractions, seafood, and vibrant Southern culture has just elected its first Republican mayor since 1877.
By an extremely thin margin, former South Carolina State Rep. William Cogswell, a Republican, defeated Democrat incumbent Mayor John Tecklenburg to take the helm of one of the South’s most prominent cities.
Charleston, dubbed “the Holy City” for the many church spires that dot its skyline, is a place where history is everywhere: buildings dating to the 17th and 18th centuries are found across the city. The scars of the American Revolution and the American Civil War are still ubiquitous.
Still, at a metropolitan area population of just over 700,000 citizens over three nearby counties, Charleston is a small city that never managed to reach the heights of larger East Coast port cities like Boston and New York.
Nevertheless, Charlestonians are proud of where they live, a place where the old coastal southern culture is still remembered. In recent years, however, Charleston has grown dramatically, with new developments peppering the northern end of the city—leading many in the city and nearby to feel as if it’s growing too fast, becoming too similar to the north, and losing its core southern soul.
This sharp uptick in development has been led in large part by Mr. Tecklenburg, who directed the city for eight years since his election in 2015.
Charleston, one of three major cities in South Carolina, is important for Democrats, representing one of only a handful of blue strongholds in the otherwise deeply red state.
On the other hand, Charleston—though it tends to vote Democrat, like almost every metropolitan area—is a deeply moderate community.
In 2020, Charlestonians voted overwhelmingly for President Joe Biden, who won South Carolina’s 1st congressional district, in which Charleston is situated, by a double-digit margin.
By Joseph Lord
