|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
As hard as it is to believe, the forthcoming iteration of the South Carolina Senate will be ever redder than the last one. All forty-six seats in the “upper” chamber of the S.C. General Assembly – already a “Republican” supermajority – were on the line Tuesday evening. As FITSNews previously reported, however, very few of those races are competitive due to the way Republicans and Democrats conspire to draw political boundaries in the Palmetto State.
Given the way electoral lines are drawn, the vast majority of offices are won (or lost) in the partisan primary elections in June… particularly in the GOP primaries.
Heading into Tuesday’s voting, the S.C. Senate was comprised of 30 Republicans, 15 Democrats and one independent. As dawn broke over the dome of the S.C. State House on Wednesday morning, the GOP had picked up four new seats in the chamber – continuing a transformative shift in both the balance of power and ideological composition of the Senate.
Incumbent Democrats Mike Fanning, Kevin Johnson, Gerald Malloy and Vernon Stephens all lost their seats by narrow margins – although Fanning’s race is reportedly headed to a recount after initial data showed him losing to Republican Everett Stubbs by a mere 32 votes (out of nearly 56,000 votes cast).
***
Meanwhile, Johnson lost his seat to Jeff Zell, an Ohio native and U.S. Air Force (USAF) veteran, Malloy lost his seat to farmer JD Chaplin and Stephens lost his seat to conservative attorney Tom Fernandez.
The four rural Democrats who lost their seats joined four other incumbents who were defeated in the June primary election – Democrat Dick Harpootlian and Republicans Penry Gustafson, Sandy Senn and Katrina Shealy. The latter three were so-called “sister senators” who veered to the right of the party line on the issue of abortion. Not surprisingly, Republicans retained all three of those seats.
Three other senators – independent Mia McLeod and Democrats Thomas McElveen and Nikki Setzler – declined to seek reelection in 2024, although those seats were all won by Democrats.
Those wins – which retained seats in blue districts – were among the only bright spots in what was otherwise a disastrous evening for the S.C. Democratic Party (SCDP), whose leader was otherwise occupied this election cycle.
“South Carolina Democrats got destroyed,” one party operative told me.
In the Midlands, Democrat Russell Ott defeated Republican Jason Guerry to preserve a seat vacated by Setzler – the former Senate leader of the perpetual minority party. Ott served for over a decade in the S.C. House, following in the footsteps of his father, former minority leader Harry Ott. This race was believed to be “poachable” for Republicans, but a strong ground game kept it in the blue column. Similarly, Democrats managed to hang on to the multi-county rural seat vacated by McElveen with former Camden, S.C. mayor Jeffrey Graham narrowly defeating businessman Mike Jones.
***
ABOUT THE AUTHOR …
J. Mark Powell is an award-winning former TV journalist, government communications veteran, and a political consultant. He is also an author and an avid Civil War enthusiast. Got a tip or a story idea for Mark? Email him at mark@fitsnews.com.
***
WANNA SOUND OFF?
Got something you’d like to say in response to one of our articles? Or an issue you’d like to address proactively? We have an open microphone policy! Submit your letter to the editor (or guest column) via email HERE. Got a tip for a story? CLICK HERE. Got a technical question or a glitch to report? CLICK HERE.
11 comments
How in the world did Heather Bauer beat Kirkman Finlay again? She is an uber lib who never met a stupid idea she didn’t like. On her website, she claims that she’s providing oversight to RCSD1! If ever a political group needed oversight that one does, but if anything, they’re getting worse.
Probably because Finlay got rid of his Mexican restaurant in 5 Points and people are still pissed that there are no decent Mexican restaurants in Columbia.
Hahahahahahahha
This is great.
WINNING!!!
What, no snarky, condescending comments from the usual libtard trolls who love to talk shit??? Hey Red Uprising!- ‘where you at??? Under your filthy Che Guevarra print blanket in your parent’s basement while they are getting you some meds for the butthurt????
Well, all I have to say for now is that South Carolina needs to keep moving in the direction of being a fortress of liberty and a safe haven for broad Judeo-Christian values that save families from being torn apart and children handed over to darkness. The real prize and objective next election needs to be a clean sweep of all the neo-marxists, DEI grifters and commies off of all of the major school boards of this state, and the elimination of tenure in higher education so we can drastically reduce the neo marxists, DEI grifters, and commies trying to indoctrinate our children to hate themselves and their country.
The libtard troll services are no longer needed.
Two words, Colonel: “Richland County”.
Heck, even though Finlay is touted as the “conservative” choice, I seem to recall him voting against Constitutional Carry, or was it the consolation prize they gave us a few years ago known as “Open Carry With Permit”.
With the defeat of three white Republican women Senators, the retirement of one African-American one, and the defeat of three African-American male Senators, the new State Senate will have regressed to those days when one house of our legislature was run by of a bunch of white guys in suits.
We can only hope. Back when things got done. They’ll still have Darrell Jackson there to serve drinks. Plus it’ll give Todd Rutherford something to be constantly angry about other than all of his clients being found guilty.
“Things got done…”. Yeah, like “Lost Trust” and SCANA nuclear plant disaster, the Panthers land deal…
So three things fell through in what… 40 years? In those same 40 years we saw things like BMW, Boeing, etc…