South Carolina held on to its ruby-red dominance following Election Day, led by now President-elect Donald Trump’s win over Vice President Kamala Harris by 18 percentage points.
Gov. Henry McMaster posted to X on Wednesday morning, calling it a “great day for America” and congratulating Trump and Vice President-elect JD Vance.
“I look forward to working together to build a brighter future for our people, help South Carolina continue to prosper, and ultimately make America great again!” he said.
While Tuesday’s election results up and down the ballot solidify the GOP’s stronghold on the Palmetto State, implications of the final votes will play out in Congress, the statehouse, and county boards and creates a path of little to no resistance in GOP priorities such as abortion and school choice.
The Republican Party held on to its supermajority in the House and gained a supermajority in the Senate for the first time in 150 years after picking up four seats ― making it able to easily end filibusters.
Drew McKissick, chairman of the South Carolina Republican Party said no Republican incumbent lost a race statewide. The party was able to capitalize off the higher turnout for Republicans with Trump at the top of the ticket. More than 67% of the state’s registered voters cast ballots.
Sheri Biggs makes history, will it be a factor?
Congressional candidates also fended off their seats from challengers. Sheri Biggs will join U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC 1st district) as the only two women in South Carolina’s congressional delegation and will be the first woman to represent the third district.
Biggs conquered several opponents and a run-off against Trump-backed Mark Burns in the June GOP primary. Biggs’ campaign focused on her experience as a board-certified family nurse practitioner and psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner.
“Washington has a health problem – mental, fiscal, and spiritual – and it’s awfully close to bringing our nation to its knees. It’s time for Healing our Nation,” her campaign website reads.
Biggs also did not campaign on her gender, as rhetoric from her campaign focused mostly on border security and her experience as a lieutenant colonel in the Air National Guard.
Democrat defeated, but fundraising set a record
In the next district over, after a grueling primary, U.S. Rep. William Timmons (R-SC 4th district) easily won with 60% of the vote against Kathryn Harvey, the Democratic challenger. Harvey sought to be the first Democrat to represent the district since the 1990s.
In 2020, Timmons won by another large margin against Democratic challenger Kim Nelson. He garnered 61% of the vote. He did not have a challenger in 2022.
Timmons faced criticism from Harvey for campaigning in other states, such as Pennsylvania or Georgia. “At the end of the day, we were going to win this district,” Timmons said, arguing his “time was best spent helping people in districts that are working hard that are close.”
Harvey remained undeterred during her campaign and raised over $483,000, the most a Democrat candidate has raised in the race for the district.
“Together, we ran an aggressive but clean campaign that prioritized the urgent needs of Upstate families and held our three-term congressman accountable for his harmful, party-line voting record. Although we fell short of flipping SC-04 this time around, the achievements of our campaign speak for themselves,” Harvey said.
Flipped seats create supermajority
The state also saw the entire statehouse up for election. On Tuesday, the GOP flipped four seats in the state senate, granting it a Republican supermajority.
“Today, Palmetto State residents voted to send four new Republican Senators to Columbia, affirming that the values of safe communities, fiscal responsibility, family integrity, and educational freedom resonate with South Carolinians,” Senate Majority Leader Shane Massey said in a statement. “The Senate Republican Caucus strategically invested in strong candidates and succeeded in creating competitive races, even in traditionally Democratic districts. I look forward to working alongside these new Senators to champion conservative victories that make South Carolina an even better place to live, work, and raise a family.”
‘Only’ a citizen can vote
Statewide, voters accepted a constitutional amendment that will change Section 4, Article II of the South Carolina Constitution, mandating that “only” a citizen can vote.
Greenville GOP chairwoman Yvonne Julian said the constitutional amendment would act as an “additional safeguard against people voting illegally.”
“It is sad to say that there are people in the country who want that to happen,” Julian said.
It is already illegal for a noncitizen to vote, and there is no evidence that noncitizens are voting in South Carolina.
The amendment passed by a broad majority. With approximately 98% of counties reporting, more than 85% of voters approved the measure.
South Carolina was not alone in approving the measure. Seven states had similar measures on the ballot that all passed, including North Carolina.
Critics say the amendment was unnecessary as it is already illegal to vote as a noncitizen in South Carolina and have concerns that the amendment could lead to voter suppression, such as passing laws requiring to show proof of citizenship through a passport or birth certificate.
Infrastructure solution will challenge new council
Locally, Anderson and Greenville counties rejected measures that would raise local sales taxes to pay for road improvements.
In Greenville, the motion failed by three percentage points. The proposed increase would have raised the local sales tax in Greenville County from 6% to 7% to pay for road improvements.
Republican Liz Seman, who soundly defeated Constitution Party challenger John Langville on Tuesday, said the close margin further shows that the “message is infrastructure is important.”
“We certainly hear all the time that infrastructure is a challenge, and so that will be something the new council will have to face come January,” Seman said.
In January, four new councilmen will join Greenville County Council after defeating three incumbents in the June primary. Frank Farmer, who won the GOP nomination for Greenville County Council District 22 after Councilman Stan Tzouvelekas opted for a statehouse run, defeated Democrat challenger Karine Debaty.
Greenville County residents are also generally opposed to new taxes as proven by the ousting of the three incumbents, Butch Kirven, Chris Harrison and Mike Barnes, who all voted to increase property taxes last August.
Greenville County Councilmembers-elect Garey Collins, Curt McGahhey and Kelly Long were all unopposed in the general election and all ran on campaigns opposing the tax increase.
All four of the newly elected council members opposed the penny sales tax and came out against it in July.
As it stands, only 28 to 32 county roads can be paved each year despite owning 1,800 miles of roads. Roads are deteriorating, county staff Tee Coker and Hesha Gamble said more than a year ago. The problem is only expected to worsen as more people move to the county.
It remains unanswered how Greenville County will work on improving roads. Some councilmen have suggested in the past that the solution relies on increasing funds from the budget to improve roads.
The county spends about $78 million per year on roads. This includes several funding methods, such as the state’s Department of Transportation contributing $27 million and the state gas taxes supplying $4 million. Greenville County commits $12 million from its annual budget.
The South Carolina chapter of Americans for Prosperity said in a statement it was “glad to see the burden to improve state infrastructure will not be put on South Carolinians as Greenville already receives millions of dollars in transportation revenue that could and should be used for road repairs.”
“We want to promote policies that ensure families are keeping more of their hard-earned money by flattening the tax code over time, not covering the government’s bill for roadway expenses, and today’s decision was a promising step in the right direction,” said Candace Carroll, the organization’s director of public affairs.
In Anderson County, the measure failed by seven percentage points. It would have raised $366 million for road improvements.
Savannah Moss covers SC government/politics for the Greenville News. Reach her at smoss@gannett.com or @savmoss on X.
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Publish date : 2024-11-07 09:44:00
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