Spartanburg Co. Sheriff exchanges words with former deputy in candidate forum

DUNCAN, S.C. (WSPA) – The Town of Duncan hosted a candidate forum and meet-and-greet on Wednesday at the Duncan Event Center, allowing the public an opportunity to meet those who may soon represent them.

19 state and county elected official hopefuls briefly made their case to dozens of attendees why they should be elected or in some cases, re-elected, to office.

Two of those people were Spartanburg County Sheriff Chuck Wright and former Spartanburg County Deputy Nick Duncan, who is challenging Wright for the job.

“This event is important, we have 19 candidates who are running for office,” said Cameron Fant, Duncan town administrator. “This gives them an opportunity for them to tell the public a little bit about themselves and what they stand for so the public will be a little more educated when it comes time to go and vote.”

Duncan is running on a platform urging a need for “fresh ideas” and better community relations with the public.

“When I was working in the Spartanburg County Sheriff’s Office, I started noticing some things we could be doing in the county for the communities,” said Duncan at the event. “If we can get a fentanyl task force started, then we can kind of get ahead of [the drug problem].”

The man Duncan wants to replace has been heading up the sheriff’s oepartment for 20 years and is running on a platform emphasizing good community relations and continuing efforts to combat drug-related crime.

“I feel like the report card I can show you is a very good one,” said Wright. “We have a very good relationship with our community. We’ve been very tough on crime [and] we’ve worked on drugs.”

Wright said he knows more has to be done to keep the county safe, so Wright announced at the forum he would support a law that allows his office to go after drug dealers that provided drugs to people who died from them.

“We need a law where if someone gives fentanyl to our loved ones and they die, we can actually charge them,” said Wright.

Duncan also believes drugs, particularly fentanyl, is a problem.

“If we can get a fetanayl task force started, then we can kind of get ahead of this,” said Duncan.

Duncan also wants to create a community advisement board within the sheriff’s office.

“Some of the things I want to do is have like a community advisement board where the community can come together and ask questions and get information within the communities,” said Duncan.

The statewide primaries will be held on June 11.

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