The 2026 legislative session starts Tuesday, June 13 with all 170 seats filled. (Travis Bell/STATEHOUSE CAROLINA)
Republican Greg Ford maintained a 21-vote lead in an automatic recount Friday to win a special election for a state House seat in Dorchester County.
The retired Air force veteran fills the last vacancy in the Legislature just ahead of Tuesday’s start to the 2026 session.
A South Carolina native, Ford holds a bachelor’s degree from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University and a master’s degree from The Citadel. He is working toward a doctorate degree from Charleston Southern University, according to his campaign website.
The vote tallies didn’t change with the recount, which state law requires if less than 1 percentage point separates the candidates.
Ford won 50.2% of 3,440 votes in the Tuesday special election, while Democrat Sonja Ogletree Satani won 49.6%. Five voters wrote in someone else’s name. Just over 14% of the district’s registered voters cast a ballot, according to results certified by the state Election Commission.
The special election fills the remainder of former Rep. Chris Murphy’s term.
Both Ford and Ogletree Satani told the SC Daily Gazette they intend to run again for the next full term. So, there could be a rematch in November, depending on the outcome of the June primaries.
Murphy, a former House Judiciary chairman, submitted his resignation in August, though it didn’t go into effect until Monday. He was first elected in 2010 and replaced longtime Republican Rep. Annette Young, who retired after 20 years in the House.
Ogletree Satani previously ran against Murphy in 2024. That race wasn’t nearly as close: Murphy won re-election by 14 percentage points.
Ford and Ogletree Satani each faced two opponents in their primaries. The Republican primary went to a runoff, which Ford won with 56% of the vote.
The Dorchester County race was the last of four special elections for Statehouse seats since the end of the 2025 legislative session.
Three special elections were held two days before Christmas. The odd timing came down to state law, which sets the calendar for the special election process once a resignation is received. And three legislators happened to resign on the same day in August.
Republicans won all of the races Dec. 23, though that was essentially a given for two of them.
In the only race with a Democrat on the ballot, Lexington County pastor John Lastinger won with 62% of the vote to replace ex-Rep. RJ May, who is set to be sentenced Wednesday after pleading guilty to distributing videos of children being sexually abused. About 11% of the Lexington County district’s registered voters cast ballots, according to the state Election Commission.
