The Town of Lexington’s five candidates for town council seats on this year’s Nov. 4 ballot spoke to the public about their goals if elected at the Oct. 7 Lexington Town Council Candidate Forum, but some also spoke of shortcomings they perceived in other candidates. 

“It was very unusual,” Lexington Mayor Hazel Livingston told the Chronicle. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many attacks—personal attacks, not just attacks on difference in policy—in my whole time of serving this community. … The personal attacks on all the incumbents were not okay.”

Livingston’s seat is not on the ballot this year, but she was an audience member at the forum.

Held at the North Lake Community Learning Center and hosted by the Lexington Chamber and Visitors Center, the Lexington County Chronicle and the League of Women Voters, each of the five candidates—incumbents Todd Carnes, Ron Williams and Gavin Smith, as well as challengers Greg Brewer and Doug Leonard—were asked questions by the moderator, and each had the opportunity to respond.

Livingston also told the Chronicle that some of the comments made by the candidates were disheartening to her because they felt like an attack not only on town council, but also on town staff.

“That’s negative against our staff because they’re the ones that really do the work and guide us, and they work so hard,” she said. “There’s no one at Town Hall that I think is deceitful. … I think they’re all trying to do the right thing for the community.”

Topics the candidates talked about that either led to stirs in the audience or interruptions from candidates on the forum include Lexington Town Council’s attendance at the Municipal Association of South Carolina’s July 2025 annual meeting on Hilton Head Island, a liaison-type role between town council and small business owners in the town, small business owners’ opinions about doing business in the town, financial transparency, LGBTQ topics in schools and appointments to the Central Midlands Council of Governments.

A recording of the entire forum can be found on the Lexington Chamber and Visitors Center’s Facebook page. 

The Chronicle will publish fact checks soon on some of the candidates’ statements made during the forum. No direct quotes from the candidates at the forum are in this story because the Chronicle is working on fact-checking them. The entire forum is available to watch for free through the Chamber's Facebook page.