All Charleston municipal elections are required to be non-partisan, but most candidates can be affiliated with political parties.

Charleston uses a two-round system, where election runoffs are held if no candidate obtains the majority of the vote.

Incumbent Democratic Mayor John Tecklenburg ran for re-election to a second consecutive term.

In the runoff Republican William Cogswell defeated Democratic Mayor John Tecklenburg.

Cogswell became the first Republican mayor of Charleston since reconstruction when George Cunningham left office in 1877.