York Co. GOP reopened filing period after sheriff’s wife makes last-minute bid in race
YORK COUNTY, SC (QUEEN CITY NEWS) — The York County Republican Party has decided to reopen and extend the filing in the sheriff’s race after incumbent Sheriff Kevin Tolson dropped out of the race and his wife, Beth Tolson, filed to run for sheriff less than an hour before the April 1 noon deadline.
Filing reopens Thursday, April 11 at noon and runs through April 17 at noon.
Tolson was first elected sheriff eight years ago.
He filed to run again on March 18 but later withdrew.
Then, at the last minute on April 1, just before the noon deadline, at 11:17 a.m., Beth Tolson threw her name in the race for sheriff.
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That left her unopposed for the GOP Primary in June.
“I was really surprised, really unexpected, it really caught me off guard,” said Heath Clevenger, a retired York County Sheriff’s lieutenant, who is running for sheriff for the first time.
Clevenger worked for Kevin Tolson and said he had planned to run for sheriff when his former boss wasn’t running, but with the changes happening at the last minute, Clevenger had no time to file.
“I respect Kevin; I worked for him; he’s a good man; same thing, Beth’s a good woman; I don’t have anything against her, but I was planning on running when Kevin didn’t. With the anticipation that he was going to run, I didn’t have any of that stuff set in place,” said Clevenger.
Once filing closed and Clevenger found out Kevin Tolson wasn’t running, he was going to try and run as an independent or do whatever he could to get his name on the ballot.
Now he can run as a Republican because Tuesday night the York County GOP voted to reopen and extend filing in the sheriff’s race.
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“It’s already a David versus Goliath for me trying to get into this thing now, but it would’ve been even more if I’d have had to run Independent because a large majority of South Carolina votes straight party.
Queen City News called and emailed both Kevin and Beth Tolson, along with the York County Republican and Democratic Parties, and we got no response from anyone except Clevenger on Wednesday.
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