News & Events

SC Equality Coalition Announces City of Columbia Endorsements

October 21, 2025

South Carolina Equality Coalition (SCEC) is a 501(c)(4) statewide organization dedicated to advancing LGBTQ+ equality through advocacy and legislation. We proudly announce our municipal endorsements for the City of Columbia’s 2025 elections, including races for Mayor, At-Large Council, District 1, and District 4. These endorsements reflect our mission to promote fairness and inclusion for all LGBTQ+ South Carolinians. Each endorsed candidate completed SCEC’s municipal questionnaire, participated in interviews, and was reviewed and approved by our Board of Directors. In a time when equality is under attack across the country, local leadership matters. The people we elect to city offices shape our daily lives — from ensuring inclusive public spaces and housing to protecting Pride celebrations and affirming all families. As a Pro-Equality voter, we urge you to support these candidates who will be strong voices for fairness, dignity, and justice in Columbia’s local government.

SCEC is Proud to Endorse these Candidates
Julie Lumpkin

District 4, City of Columbia

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The McClatchy South Carolina Editorial Board endorses Julie Lumpkin for Columbia City Council District Four

October 16, 2025 Online
October 19, 2025 Print

The McClatchy South Carolina Editorial Board is making endorsements in races for mayor and three City Council seats in Columbia after interviewing the candidates and independently researching them and their backgrounds.

In the City Council District Four race, one candidate rose above the rest. Ultimately, a vote for either Brown, 60; Lumpkin, 73; or McCall, 32, would be a fine decision, but we thought Lumpkin showed the deepest understanding and the most solutions-oriented mindset in the council race.

“Lumpkin showed the deepest understanding and the most solutions-oriented mindset in the council race.” 

Lumpkin’s thoughtful, substantive answers to our candidate Q&A stood out from her opponents’ replies. McCall’s paled in comparison, and Brown’s answers were surprisingly short on substance and specifics. Asked to directly address several issues — from improving public safety to protecting a nearly $25 million investment in Finlay Park to listing one budget cut and one new expense that was necessary, and why — Brown offered general, non-responsive answers.

If you didn’t know which candidate was the incumbent, it would be easy to read the three Q&As and guess that it was Lumpkin. Asked which unmentioned issue deserves more attention, Brown answered, “How much good stuff is going on in Columbia? … Columbia is on a roll, and it is not an accident.” He added, “It is time that the media recognize the progress as well.”

Columbia is on the rise, but, like any American city, it has issues. And our open-ended question was designed to test each candidate’s knowledge of those problems as well as how they think.

We thought that Lumpkin aced the assignment and showed that she might be a different kind of council member. “The city needs to establish a more intentional relationship with its neighborhoods, rebuild relationships and generate reciprocal dialogue and problem-solving,” she told us. “In District 4 many neighborhood associations are actively seeking to maintain and improve their neighborhoods. They would welcome more involvement from their Council representative, and I plan to be very involved. As their councilwoman, I will be very involved.”

McCall’s answer to the same question was equally holistic. She’d focus more on community health and well-being, which she called the “thread that ties everything together.” Yet given the totality of their answers, that response didn’t give McCall, who has a master’s degree in social work, the edge over Lumpkin, who has a master’s of science degree in public health.

McCall’s voter records also show she votes infrequently, skipping city general elections in 2019, 2021 and 2023. Lumpkin and Brown have long voting histories and rarely miss elections.

Lumpkin also offered a far more detailed answer when asked about the state’s recent threat to withhold millions of dollars in funding from the city if it didn’t repeal its conversion therapy ban.

Brown and McCall gave stock answers about case-by-case scenarios while Lumpkin offered a full-throated defense of “home rule” protections that the city weakened by overturning its ban. She also said she would have considered offers from outside lawyers to represent Columbia pro bono to “argue that the state was overstepping its authority in threatening” the city.

Read The State’s full endorsement here.

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October 4, 2025 – the 10th Anniversary of the 1,000-Year Flood in Columbia

October 4, 2025

The 1,000 Year Flood in Columbia (2015) had a tremendous impact on residents in District 4. The impact is still evident in bridges left unreplaced and  damaged properties left unrepaired. This, along with a string of brand new homes brightening some neighborhood streets. But mostly the impact is felt in District 4 residents’ lingering memories, of dramatic rescues to escape flood waters, landscaping and homes damaged beyond repair, and in a few tragic instances, the loss of human life. While it was called a 1,000-year flood event, it’s possible serious flooding could happen again in our lifetimes due to climate change. Should we wait to be sitting ducks again? No! We can urge Council to develop a flood resiliency plan. 

If elected to Council, I will advocate for the city to allocate some of its increased water services revenues to conduct water flow studies and to develop a flood resiliency plan in the Gills Creek Watershed (https://budget.columbiasc.gov/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/FY-25-26-Adopted-Budget-website.pdf). This watershed flows through much of District 4, which includes the residential lake systems connected by Gills Creek and its tributaries down to lower Devine Street past Midlands TEC and Gills Creek Parkway. Having worked in a scientific consulting firm, I understand that detailed hydrology studies could guide us in developing a long-term flood resilience plan to protect neighborhoods. 

An analogy given to me was seeing the lake and stream system as bowls with straws connected to them. You can imagine that when a lake overflows or overtops a dam, the stream is like a straw trying to collect the overflow. As they are now, the streams are not wide or deep enough to channel the water, causing choke points. The purpose of these studies would be to measure the shape and depth of the stream bed to determine where to dredge to reduce choke points when water backs up. Once this data is collected, a plan can be developed to increase the capacity of Gills Creek between the lakes. Additional funds would need to be allocated to actually map the system more accurately. This would serve to support a flood resiliency plan, with the goal of reducing the damage and the enormous cost from losses due to needed repairs and destruction.