Shealy On Brink of Ousting Knotts From Senate 23

Defeating an incumbent is hard.

Defeating an incumbent as entrenched as Sen. Jake Knotts is harder.

Defeating an incumbent like Knotts while running as petition candidate is a special kind of challenge.

But that is precisely what Katrina Shealy was on the verge of doing Tuesday night, holding a 51-44 lead over Knotts with just absentee and fail-safe votes left to count. Click here to see the most-updated voting results.

And in doing so she removed Knotts from the District 23 Senate seat that he had held since 2002.

Shealy challenged Knotts for the Senate 23 seat in 2008, but was defeated in the primary. This year, a lawsuit filed by Knotts go her thrown off the ballot along with hundreds of other candidates before a single primary vote was cast.

Undaunted, Shealy successfully qualified as a petition candidate and put together a campaign to oust Knotts, a fixture in Lexington County politics for decades.

"It's never been personal," Shealy said on Tuesday. "I just always felt we deserved better and we could do better."

With 30 of 37 precincts reporting the vote tally was:

Shealy 12,784 (51.32%)

Knotts 10,894 (43.73%)

Knotts was known for being a constituent-driven politician not a afraid to speak his mind. His forthrightness occasionally got him trouble and he found the national spotlight for the wrong reason when he referred to President Obama and Governor Haley as "ragheads" in 2010.

But Jake Knotts is of little concern to Katrina Shealy now. It wasn't the route she planned, but she now finds herself a state Senator. "We worked so hard and the fact that we won as petition candidate makes it that much sweeter."

Shealy's full statement:

“Today truly is a great day in South Carolina!

Today, all of you have proven that the people are in charge of our government not the politicians.

Today, we end the backroom deals. Today, we end the wasteful spending. Today, we end the good-ole-boy politics as usual.

We took on the establishment. We challenged the way Columbia works.

Heck, we were outspent 16 to 1... And we won!

I have to first thank my husband, Jimmy, who has stood right next to me and supported our campaign from day one. Not only is he the best husband I could ever ask for, but he is the best teammate I could ever ask for.

Governor Haley, thank you for your great friendship and support. Sen. Greg Gregory, I can’t thank you enough. You took a heck of a chance by endorsing me. You showed true character knowing the potential backlash, and helped me get elected. For this, I will always be grateful and always call you a friend.

I want to especially thank my campaign team - Michael Mule’, Brent Littlefield, and the UPT Strategies team for developing a campaign plan like no one in South Carolina has ever seen. I want to thank Rebecca Shadwell for executing the plan flawlessly… And I want to thank each and every one of you - for your hard work, your countless volunteer hours, and your prayers.

WE DID IT!

To the people of Senate District 23, thank you so much for placing your trust in me. Together we can and we will clean up Columbia and make South Carolina the best place to live, work, and raise our families. God bless you and God bless America!”