Filing is officially closed for 2026 South Carolina elections, and the Horry County Board of Education races have come into full focus.
Horry County school board elections are partisan elections, with the primaries set to take place on Tuesday, June 9. This year, the board chair is up for election as are six seats on the board.
With a new board chair guaranteed and multiple candidates running with at least one opposing candidate, there is the potential for quite a bit of shake-up on the board.
Board Chair Candidates
Darrell Ricketts – Republican
Melanie Wellons – Republican
There are just two candidates up for the board chair position this year. Current board chair David Cox confirmed to MyHorryNews that he will not be running for reelection. Cox was first elected to the board in 2008; this term was his only term as the board chair.
Ricketts is the current District 11 representative (Aynor, Conway, Green Sea Floyds). He was elected to the board in November 2024. He worked with Horry County Schools for over 38 years as a teacher and an administrator.
Wellons is the current District 8 representative (Carolina Forest, Conway, Forestbrook) and the current vice chair of the board. She was appointed to the board in April 2021. A Coastal Carolina graduate, she has also served on the Carolina Forest High School Improvement Council and the Carolina Forest Advisory Board.
District 1 Candidates (North Myrtle Beach, North Myrtle Beach)
David Koch – Republican (incumbent)
Louis Palm – Democrat
Koch is the current District 1 representative. He was elected to the board in November 2022. He is the director of operations at Christian Recovery Centers, a non-profit organization that provides free drug and alcohol treatment, recovery, and re-entry services for men and women struggling with substance use disorder.
Palm is an Army veteran and former candidate for North Myrtle Beach mayor, looking to win the seat from Koch. Palm served in Vietnam and was in the Army for 27 years. He also spent time in the Department of Energy and the FBI before moving to North Myrtle Beach.
District 2 Candidates (Carolina Forest and Myrtle Beach)
Meredith Kennedy – Republican
Thomas Vaughn – Republican
The District 2 seat is up for grabs as Debbie Edmonds, the current District 2 representative, told MyHorryNews she is not running for reelection.
Kennedy is the chair of the Myrtle Beach Middle School Improvement Council. She previously worked 18 years with for-profit technical colleges and is now a licensed Realtor in South Carolina.
Vaughn is a current school-based mental health counselor in Horry County Schools’ behavior health services program. He has worked with the district as a mental health counselor for the last six years and has spent four decades working in counseling-related positions.
District 3 Candidates (Carolina Forest, Myrtle Beach)
Tracy Winters – Republican (incumbent)
James “J.D.” Davis – Republican
David Frierson – Republican
Diane Middleton – Democrat
Winters is the current District 3 representative. She was appointed to the Board in 2021 to fulfill the unexpired term of her late husband, Ray Winters. Ray, who had served on the board since 2014, passed away in August 2021. Winters served on the School Improvement Council at Ocean Bay Middle School and was an active member of the PTO.
Davis is an Army veteran and former director of JROTC and Physical Education for Horry County Schools. He retired from Horry County Schools in June 2025 after spending nearly a decade overseeing the district’s JROTC and Physical Education programs.
Frierson is a longtime pastor and ministry professional. He recently retired to Carolina Forest after 43 years of full-time ministry in the Presbyterian Church of America. He served churches in South Carolina, North Carolina, Texas, Mississippi and Maryland.
Middleton is a longtime teacher who retired and moved to Horry County about ten years ago. She spent her education career teaching elementary school up north in areas like Washington D.C. and Fairfax, Virginia.
District 6 Candidates (Carolina Forest, St. James, Socastee)
Pam Dawson – Republican (incumbent)
Dawson is the only candidate filed to run for the District 6 seat. She was elected to the board in November 2022. She is a retired professional telecommunications program manager with a focus on the defense industry with companies in the aerospace sector and has local service experience, including the Horry County Planning Commission.
District 7 Candidates (Carolina Forest, Conway)
Janet Graham – Democrat (incumbent)
Sonya Sasser – Republican
Graham was appointed to the Horry County Board of Education in 2012 and was elected in November 2014. She is an area manager for the Myrtle Beach Area Small Business Development Center at Coastal Carolina University. She is also the President-elect of the South Carolina School Boards Association Executive Board.
Sasser is a small business owner and Advisory Board member of the YMCA of Coastal Carolina. She worked in the healthcare field for over a decade and is currently a licensed esthetician, also having been actively engaged in local Republican Party leadership.
District 10 Candidates (Carolina Forest, Conway, Green Sea Floyds, Loris)
Jason Morgan – Republican
David Warner – Republican
Stephen Whisnant – Republican
District 10 will have a new representative after Neil James confirmed to MyHorryNews that he will not be running for reelection.
Morgan is a retired South Carolina State Trooper and the president of Horry County Schools’ Green Sea Floyds Advisory Board. He is also a former volunteer firefighter and EMT, and he currently owns and operates a security technology business.
Warner is the former chairman for the Horry County chapter of Moms for Liberty and a previous candidate for the Horry County Board of Education. He has been active locally in conservative parent advocacy efforts.
Whisnant has been a high school band director for 32 years and has been the Loris High School band and orchestra director since 1998. He is a longtime member of several music associations, including the National Association for Music Education.
