Ragin easily defeats challenger for District 5 Sumter school board seat
Sumter School District Trustee Shawn Ragin retained his redrawn District 5 seat following Tuesday’s midterm election.
According to unofficial election-night totals, Ragin defeated challenger Mary Singleton with 1,493 votes, or 67.62% to Singleton’s 686 votes, or 31.07%. Votes will be made official on Friday, according to the Sumter County Voter Registration and Elections Office, once failsafe votes are considered, though those are not often more than a handful. Absentee and early votes are already included in Tuesday’s totals.
Sumter school board moved to nine single-member districts for this election and moving forward. Previously, the board had seven single-member districts and two at-large seats.
The new District 5 is the southwestern portion of Sumter County, which includes Wedgefield, Pinewood and other areas. It is bordered by Richland County to the west, Clarendon County to the south and Old Manning Road to the east and includes Lakewood High School.
Ragin is a Pinewood native and 2004 graduate of Lakewood High School. He was first elected to the board in 2018.
He is the founder and headmaster of Ragin Preparatory Christian Academy in Sumter. His educational experience also includes teaching in the former Sumter School District 17, Lee County School District and a former charter school in Lee County. He is in his 12th year serving in education.
Tuesday was hectic for Ragin. He started his morning around 6:30 a.m., putting up signs at the precincts to ensure voters knew where they could vote. For those unable to drive themselves, he and others drove voters to and from the polls.
As the day winded down and the polls closed, Ragin said he expected this outcome.
“I had the mindset to win and to ensure that somebody in that area took the seat for the children,” he said.
Moving forward, he said the school board will look at the agenda for this school year and work as a team to fulfill it.
“I will do my best to support the superintendent so we can do the work for our district as a whole, especially for our children and our staff.”