COLUMBIA, S.C. — Certified results from South Carolina’s Nov. 3 election show how Democrats pulled off their best showing in the state in decades: a wave of Black voters, a sharp jump in young voters and a record share of straight-party ballots.
Democrat Annie Andrews defeated appointed U.S. Sen. Darline Graham, the party’s first statewide win in 20 years and the first time South Carolina has elected a Democrat to the Senate since 1998. Democrats also took one congressional seat from Republicans and gained 10 seats in the state House. State Rep. Jermaine Johnson lost the governor’s race to Attorney General Alan Wilson by less than 5 percentage points, falling short of becoming the state’s first Black governor.
About 503,200 Black voters cast ballots, roughly a quarter of the electorate and close to presidential-year levels. That is 29 percent more than the total number of nonwhite voters in the 2022 midterm, and the most in any midterm since at least 1986. The state only began reporting Black voters as a separate category in 2024, so a direct comparison with past midterms is not possible. Total turnout fell 20 percent from the 2024 presidential race, but Black turnout fell only 7 percent.
Young voters showed up too. Nearly 100,000 South Carolinians ages 18 to 24 voted, about 30,000 more than four years earlier, an increase of more than 42 percent. Voters 25 to 44 rose 28 percent. People 45 and older still made up 73 percent of the electorate.
More than 2 million people voted in all, about 60 percent of registered voters, up from about 51 percent in 2022. Straight-ticket ballots, which South Carolina is one of only six states to offer, made up 63 percent of all votes cast. Republicans still had more of them, but Democrats claimed 48 percent, about 100,000 more Democratic straight tickets than in 2024.
Several contests were close enough to trigger the state’s automatic recount, which applies when the margin is 1 percent or less. They included the 2nd Congressional District and a Lexington County state House seat held by outgoing House Majority Leader Micah Caskey, which a Democrat flipped.
From the HERE City State Desk
Section: More Lexington SC politics news
Filed under: Lexington SC Politics News
