It’s official: SC Republicans already on the ballot can run for Senate too

COLUMBIA — Days before filing begins for the special GOP primary, the state Election Commission made clear that South Carolina candidates can run for multiple offices simultaneously.

In other words, it’s perfectly legal for Republicans who are already on the November ballot to also seek — and win — the GOP nomination for U.S. Senate.

“As a practical matter, candidates have appeared on general election ballots for more than one office in previous South Carolina elections,” reads a statement Wednesday evening from the state’s elections agency.

The sudden death of Sen. Lindsey Graham over the weekend triggered an Aug. 11 special Republican primary to replace him as the nominee in November. The first open U.S. Senate contest in South Carolina in 22 years is expected to be crowded.

And the timeline is tight: The one-week filing period for candidates begins at noon Tuesday. Early voting opens Aug. 5.

In the wake of the 71-year-old senator’s death, questions rose about whether a congressman seeking re-election to the U.S. House could also run to be South Carolina’s next senator — and what happens if he wins.

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Two GOP congressmen, U.S. Reps. Joe Wilson of the 2nd District and William Timmons of the 4th District, have posted online that they don’t plan to run.

But Rep. Russel Fry, whose 7th District covers coastal Horry County and the inland Pee Dee, is widely thought to be a contender. He hasn’t publicly weighed in on whether he will or won’t run. A spokesperson for Fry did not respond to messages Thursday from the SC Daily Gazette.

The state Election Commission’s statement put to rest any question of legality.

“The Election Commission removed any doubt about that,” South Carolina GOP Chairman Drew McKissick told the SC Daily Gazette on Thursday. “They looked at it legally and they made their determination, which the party and I agree with.”

But while South Carolina allows people to run for two offices at the same time, they can only occupy one. If a candidate wins two offices in November, the person must pick one. That, in turn, would require another special election.

“The only issue is after Election Day,” McKissick said. “They essentially have to refuse one office.”

Questions answered

In Wednesday’s statement, the state Election Commission said it received “numerous inquiries regarding whether a candidate could appear on a general election ballot for more than one office.”

What created the confusion is a section of state law banning so-called “fusion voting,” when candidates ran for the same office as the nominee for multiple parties. It used to be common for minor parties to pick incumbents, usually Democrats, as their candidate too. All votes for the candidate from each party line would be tallied — or fused — for the total.

But critics called it confusing to voters, particularly if an incumbent was the only person running: It appeared he was running against himself, or perhaps other people with the same name.

The 2022 law that created the rules for early voting also put an end to fusion voting.

Furman University political science professor Danielle Vinson said it’s exceedingly rare for a candidate to run for two seats and win both, forcing a choice.

In 2012, then-freshman state Rep. Tom Corbin won both re-election to the House and a state Senate seat, after the incumbent senator unexpectedly withdrew. Corbin chose the Senate.

But in 2022, when Democratic state Rep. Krystle Matthews of Ladson challenged U.S. Sen. Tim Scott, she not only lost to Scott by 26 percentage points, she got walloped in her House race too. Matthews lost her re-election bid by 27 points to Goose Creek Republican Jordan Pace, now chairman of the House’s uber-conservative Freedom Caucus.

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An ‘interesting dilemma’

But if Fry runs, he could pull off a dual win, Vinson said, since his U.S. House district is ruby red.

And state Rep. Case Brittain, R-Myrtle Beach, told the SC Daily Gazette he’s “definitely considering” a congressional run if Fry wins the U.S. Senate seat.

“It would be an honor and a tremendous challenge,” Brittain added. “But I feel I would be up to it.”

In the scenario that Fry — or any other Republican in South Carolina’s congressional delegation — wins re-election to the House as well as the Senate prize, a special election would then be necessary to fill the House seat, potentially leaving it vacant for the first few months of 2027.

“That presents its own interesting dilemma,” Vinson said, as Republicans control the House by a narrow margin.

If Republicans stay in the majority after the mid-term elections — which would defy historical trends — the margin may be even smaller.

That’s why, Timmons said, he doesn’t plan to run.

“Unless the South Carolina General Assembly changes state law, any current member of Congress already on the ballot for reelection who is elected to replace Senator Graham would leave their House seat vacant on January 3, 2027,” Timmons wrote Tuesday on the social media platform X.

“I have told Speaker Johnson that I will not do anything that increases the number of votes he must secure to be reelected Speaker in January,” Timmons continued. “At a time when every seat matters, protecting our Republican majority is more important than any individual’s political future. It is the only way we can continue delivering President Trump’s agenda for the American people.”

A Republican already on the ballot for U.S. House could withdraw to run for Senate. But then there might be no Republican running for that U.S. House seat in November, allowing a cakewalk win for the Democrat. And the Republican Party won’t let that happen.

State law allows for the replacement of a nominee who withdraws for a “legitimate nonpolitical reason,” defined as reasons of health, family crises, or a substantial business conflict.

The state Election Commission would decide whether the candidate’s reason qualifies as nonpolitical — and a run for a different office almost certainly would be deemed political.

In 2022, Timmons ran unopposed in the general election after the commission ruled the state Democratic Party could not replace its nominee, who withdrew because of his “work responsibilities” in New York.

A ‘challenging’ campaign

Candidates who jump into the Senate race face a narrow window — less than a month — to make their pitch to voters.

Vinson said the closest example may be when Rep. Joe Wilson ran for the seat held by his former boss, Rep. Floyd Spence, who died in office at the age of 73.

But there were 2½ months between Spence’s death on Aug. 16, 2001, and the five-way GOP primary Wilson won Oct. 30. He then won the special general election that December.

And a House district is less ground to cover than a statewide, Senate election, Vinson said.

“It makes campaigning really challenging,” Vinson said.

To be successful, she said, candidates will need fairly wide name recognition or the ability to get it fast.

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The winner will also need quick access to money to pay for ads and mailers because there’s no time to campaign all over the state.

Upstate businessman Mark Lynch, who unsuccessfully challenged Graham last month, and U.S. Rep. Ralph Norman, who opted to run for governor instead of re-election to the House, have both said they’re running. Both largely self-funded their campaigns.

Rep. Nancy Mace is also weighing a Senate run. Like Norman, she will be out of a job when her term in Congress expires in January after running unsuccessfully for governor.

As for Fry, who’s in his second term, Vinson said he hasn’t developed a high profile in the U.S. House. But being from Horry County gives him a solid base of GOP support.

He also doesn’t have name recognition statement.

In a race with such a tight turnaround, with lots of candidates touting their alignment with President Donald Trump, a Trump endorsement from afar might not be enough. But if he campaigns for his pick in South Carolina, that would be a “gamechanger,” she said.

‘Unprecedented’

McKissick called Graham’s death and the subsequent series of special elections “unprecedented in our state party’s history.”

“You never know who is going to file (to run),” McKissick said, adding that he hopes to see as many good, qualified candidates as possible for the six-year term.

“But in reality, if anybody is truly serious about running, they’re already making phone calls in terms of the team they’ll need,” he added, as well as money or the ability to raise it quickly.

And while endorsements don’t usually have a major impact on the outcome of an election, he said, they will carry greater weight this time “because there is so much ground to cover in so little time.”

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A call for change

State Sen. Wes Climer has advocated for changes to how the state conducts special elections.

The Rock Hill Republican, who is running for the congressional seat being vacated by Norman, is the reason the Senate passed a resolution earlier this year allowing a special election process to coincide with the regular election cycle. State Senate seats aren’t up for election this year.

The resolution would have enabled Climer’s York County constituents to determine his replacement without any special election. But the House never took up the legislation.

When that failed, Climer submitted an “irrevocable resignation” from his state Senate seat effective Nov. 3, triggering a Sept. 1 special primary while still allowing York County voters to choose their next senator on November’s general election ballot.

In the case of Graham, however, Climer said: “The untimely death of an elected official between primary and general elections is just something that has to be dealt with.”

Outside of such unpredictable scenarios, he said, aligning special elections with the normal elections calendar should be made permanent law.

“It’s an overly complex process that has far too many moving parts. It could very easily be simplified in a way that saves a lot of taxpayer money,” he told the Daily Gazette. “Given how often it seems to be happening, legislators should look at changing the law.”

Editor’s note: This article was updated Friday, July 17, with an example of a candidate who ran for two offices and won both.