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by WILL FOLKS
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Early voting erupted in South Carolina last week as Democrats stormed to the polls hoping to fill Palmetto State ballot boxes as quickly as possible. Their urgency in doing so was simple: the more ballots they could bank ahead of the June 9, 2026 partisan primary elections, the harder it would be for South Carolina Republican leaders to redraw the state’s political boundaries to conform to the wishes of U.S. president Donald Trump.
Concerned about his national agenda stalling – and Democrats impeaching him again – Trump has been pushing red states to redraw their congressional districts ahead of the 2026 elections, padding the GOP’s razor-thin majority in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Many red states complied, but South Carolina stonewalled him.
By the time GOP leaders in the Palmetto State finally got serious about advancing Trump’s maps, it was too late – with the surge in early voting ahead of the June 9 primary representing the final straw. Senators refused to change the maps during the primary – fearful the state supreme court would strike down any revisions given the number of votes already cast based on the existing maps.
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Just how significant was the surge? Through four days of early voting last week (May 26-29, 2026), more than 150,000 voters cast their ballots – shattering daily records as well as eclipsing early voting totals from both the 2022 and 2024 partisan primary election cycles.
Oh, and there’s still five more days of early voting to go…
The S.C. Election Commission (SCVotes) has not published partisan participation stats for the full week, but the agency did release these numbers for the first day of early voting. According to the data (.csv), 45,966 voters – or 81.5% of first-day early voting participants – pushed the button in the Democrat primary.
Talk about a surge…
As the daily totals advanced through the end of last week, Democrats were reportedly able to maintain a 70%–30% edge in early participation – which would translate into an estimated 105,000 Democrat votes already being banked (again, with five full days of early voting remaining).
Can they keep the momentum rolling? Or have they shot their wad (electorally speaking)?
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While S.C. Democrat Party (SCDP) leaders are thrilled with their recent mobilization efforts, there just haven’t been a lot of Democrat primary voters in recent years. In 2022, the last time South Carolina held partisan primary elections for statewide office, 181,590 people cast ballots in a competitive Democrat gubernatorial race. Conversely, 368,005 people voted in the Republican gubernatorial primary – even though incumbent governor Henry McMaster was facing a little-known, poorly funded challenger.
In the 2018 election cycle, 240,468 people voted in a competitive Democrat gubernatorial primary compared to 367,983 on the Republican side. Additionally, 343,635 Republicans turned out two weeks after the primary to vote in a GOP gubernatorial runoff election – which McMaster narrowly won over Greenville businessman John Warren.
We’ve previously reported on polling data portending serious headwinds for Palmetto State Republicans in 2026 – just as we’ve reported on the economic realities causing those headwinds. And while participation in partisan primary elections isn’t necessarily an indicator of how general elections in the fall are going to go… shifts in turnout are definitely worth tracking.
Accordingly, count on FITSNews to keep close tabs on the second week of early voting – which starts on Monday (June 1, 2026) at 8:30 a.m. EDT and runs through Friday (June 5, 2026) at 5:00 p.m. EDT.
Democrats haven’t won a statewide election in South Carolina since 2006 – and haven’t won a top-of-the-ticket race since 1998. This probably won’t be the year those streaks are broken, but they’re clearly off to a stronger-than-expected start.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR…
Will Folks is the founding editor of the news outlet you are currently reading. Prior to founding FITSNews, he served as press secretary to the governor of South Carolina. He lives in the Midlands region of the state with his wife and eight children.
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