PICKENS — Three days after Tuesday’s primary election, a clear winner has emerged in the race for County Council District 2 — Trey Whitehurst.

When the precincts reported in Tuesday evening, only three votes separated Whitehurst from incumbent Randy Crenshaw.

During a count of the provisional ballots Thursday afternoon, Crenshaw picked up another vote, making the count Whitehurst 1,145 to Crenshaw’s 1,143.

A recount was held Friday morning.

The recount tally did not change Thursday’s outcome, and the county Election Commission certified the results Friday morning.

Whitehurst, a county planning commissioner, was not present at the recount and not immediately available for comment.

Crenshaw thanked all of the voters who supported him.

“The people in my district have been wonderful,” he said.

The municipalities in District 2 — Central, Norris and Six Mile — have worked wonderfully together, Crenshaw said.

“I’ve had a great relationship with (Mayors) Mac Martin, John Wade and Odell Williams,” he said.

Crenshaw said that this year’s campaign had Republicans “working against each other with too much “bickering and backstabbing.”

“I’m not trying to be a sore loser,” he said. “The people have spoken and I’m willing to accept that, but there’s a lot of things that went on that shouldn’t have.

“That’s not the kind of things that need to be going on in the Republican Party,” Crenshaw said. “We’re supposed to be in this together.”

He said he had “no problem whatsoever” with Whitehurst challenging him for the seat.

“That’s his right,” Crenshaw said. “He’s welcome to run.”

Crenshaw said that rumors were being spread about him during the campaign, including that he was a Socialist and that he had pushed for a tax increase in the county budget.

The county budget has not contained a tax increase for the past four years, and the 2010-2011 budget passed by county council earlier this month also contains no tax increase.

Crenshaw feels that anti-incumbent sentiment played a part in his defeat as well.

Party politics make Crenshaw feel a sense of relief that he lost.

“I’m glad I’m out of it, because of the backstabbing and the dirty politics that’s going on in our party,” he said. “It’s sad. It is sad.”