Clarendon House seat 64 turns red with Pedalino beating Johnson

It appears first-term state Rep. Kimberly Johnson was ousted from her role as legislator for Clarendon County.

In a district long held by Democrats, Republican challenger Fawn Pedalino won the House District 64 seat with 55.12% of the vote, or 7,758 votes, over Johnson’s 6,303 votes, or 44.78%.

Johnson has served alongside her father, Sen. Kevin Johnson. Both of their districts reach into Sumter County. She has previously served on school boards in Manning and was on a short list for Joe Cunningham’s lieutenant governor.

Meanwhile, Pedalino's father-in-law, Joseph, lost his bid to oust longtime Clarendon County Councilman Billy Richardson.

Clarendon County voters backed Pedalino by a larger margin than which she won, sending 58.25% of their voters her way. Sumter County voters in District 64 supported Johnson, giving her 58.09% of their votes.

Votes are unofficial until being certified later this week.

During her time in office, Pedalino said she wants to participate in making new laws, changing old laws and studying what outcome laws will have on the people of her district and the state.

Pedalino is not a native of Clarendon County but has lived in the county since 2010, attending schools in Summerville. She owns an IT business with her husband that deals with commercial IT, and they have a storefront in Manning for residential computer and phone repairs.

Pedalino said the biggest issue she feels Clarendon County is facing right now is a lack of transparency given to residents.

Neither candidate returned calls from The Sumter Item Tuesday night for comment.