SC sending 2 women to Congress for first time ever, as Rep. Mace wins re-election

COLUMBIA — U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace has handily won a third term representing the coastal 1st District in what had been considered South Carolina’s only potential congressional flip. 

The election sends two South Carolina women to Congress for the first time ever, after Republican Sheri Biggs trounced her opponent in the ruby red 3rd District seat — as expected.

As of 9:19 p.m., when The Associated Press called the race, Mace was leading by 58 % over the 42% of her Democratic challenger, businessman Michael B. Moore, according to unofficial results from state election officials. 

Moore was the first CEO of the International African American Museum and great-great grandson of Robert Smalls, a Civil War hero, Reconstruction-era state legislator and five-term congressman. 

“Thank you, South Carolina! What a year. What an election. And what an honor it is to stand here serving you,” Mace told her supporters. “The radical left believes strong, intelligent women can’t possibly be independent-minded conservatives, that our husbands tell us how to vote, and any woman who doesn’t agree with them must be weak or misguided. But they don’t know what it’s like to work twice as hard for half the credit.

“I am going back to Washington to stand with South Carolina in my heart,” she continued. “We’re going to secure our border, take back what it means to be a woman, and fight for our country.”

All six of South Carolina’s incumbent representatives won their re-election, including U.S. Rep. Jim Clyburn, who won a 17th term at 84 years old. Biggs, a nurse practitioner, won the Upstate seat left open by the retirement of U.S. Rep. Jeff Duncan.

The 1st Congressional District centers on Charleston and runs along the state’s southern coast. It is South Carolina’s most competitive district, according to the nonpartisan Cook Political Report, which had it favoring Republicans by 7 percentage points following the post-census redrawing of district lines that the U.S. Supreme Court upheld earlier this year.

Mace won without ever debating Moore. She rarely even acknowledged him, indicating the district’s return to being safe for Republicans.  

In June, Mace warded off a primary challenge from Catherine Templeton, a former director of two state agencies, and longshot candidate Bill Young. While Mace had the endorsement of former President Donald Trump, Templeton tried to run to Mace’s right on guns and immigration.  

Templeton found a backer in former Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy, who Mace helped oust a year ago. McCarthy’s political action committee gave Templeton $10,000 in April, and other organizations affiliated with the former speaker spent large amounts of money on Templeton’s challenge.

Despite McCarthy’s efforts, Mace easily defeated Templeton by 27 percentage points. 

Mace narrowly flipped the seat from Democratic Rep. Joe Cunningham in 2020, who flipped it two years earlier, also narrowly, after decades of Republican control. Mace’s re-elections have been easier, thanks to the new voting lines approved in January 2022. 

The American Civil Liberties Union of South Carolina and NAACP sued over the new lines, which they argued were racially discriminatory. A federal three-judge panel agreed. But in late May, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the panel’s conclusions, saying the lower court “clearly erred” in finding the lines were racially gerrymandered. 

3rd Congressional District

Biggs won South Carolina’s most lopsided seat, considered a deep shade of red, which Duncan held for 14 years.  

As of 8:17 p.m. when the AP called the race, Biggs had 69% over Democrat Bryon Best’s 28%, according to unofficial results from the state election commission.

Best manages Greenwood’s Sherwin-Williams paint store. 

Duncan’s announcement in January that he would not seek another term kicked off a crowded seven-way Republican primary. 

Biggs won a runoff in June by about 2 percentage points over Mark Burns, a pastor who gained national attention for his support of Trump. 

Burns and Biggs emerged from a primary that included Kevin Bishop, the recently retired communication director for U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham and state Rep. Stewart Jones, a founding member of the hard-right Freedom Caucus.

The district covers 11 counties along South Carolina’s northern border with Georgia, from Edgefield to Oconee. It favors Republicans by 21 points according to the nonpartisan Cook Political Report.

4th Congressional District

U.S. Rep. William Timmons won a fourth term with a blowout against Democrat Kathryn Harvey, who had hoped to at least show the district was getting a lighter shade of red.

But as of 9:41 p.m., when the AP called the race, Timmons was leading with 64% of the vote.

It was the first general election since Timmons’ alleged affair and his now-ex-wife’s divorce filing became a very public scandal. Yet it was a walloping, despite Timmons spending a lot of time outside the state rather than campaigning in the district.

In June, Timmons scraped out a primary victory over state House Rep. Adam Morgan, the exiting chairman of the chamber’s uber-conservative Freedom Caucus, by just 3 percentage points. That’s despite having the public backing of former President Donald Trump and Gov. Henry McMaster.

That race was costly for Timmons, who spent nearly $2.2 million this cycle, much of it in the primary. Harvey ended the second- and third-quarter filing periods with more cash on hand than Timmons, and outraised him in the third quarter too.

“From the bottom of my heart, thank you to all the folks across Greenville and Spartanburg Counties who supported this grassroots movement,” Harvey wrote on X. “I’m proud to have given Upstate voters a choice on the ballot — and I’ll never stop fighting for our kids and working families” in the district.

SC’s lone Democrat

Clyburn, South Carolina’s only Democrat in Congress, won the 6th District seat for a 17th term. He faced challenges from Republican Duke Buckner, United Citizens candidate Gregg “Marcel” Dixon, Alliance Party candidate Joseph Oddo, and Libertarian Michael Simpson.

Clyburn, who previously served as House majority whip, was winning with 56% compared to 41% for Buckner when the AP called it at 10:01 p.m.

That was a tighter race than expected for South Carolina’s longest-serving congressman in a district that’s been safely drawn for a Democrat since Clyburn first won office in 1992. It spans 14 counties, extending from Columbia to the Charleston peninsula, and from the state’s southern border with Georgia east to the Pee Dee.

Clyburn was expected to attend the state Democratic Party’s election night watch party at a Columbia brewery. After the polls closed at 7 p.m., the 50 or so Democrats enthusiastically clapped every time a state was called for Vice President Kamala Harris.

State Democratic Party Chairwoman Christale Spain took to the podium at 8:20 p.m. before a cheering audience.

“Who is excited to see our local candidates bring a real change to South Carolina? Who’s thrilled to send Congressman Clyburn back to the U.S. Congress? And who is inspired and excited to see the daughter of immigrants and a single mom become the first female president of the United States?” Spain asked.

But not long after, state Democratic leadership left for the night, the party-goers dwindled, and many of those early hopes fell as results began showing big wins for Republicans up and down the ballot in South Carolina.

Clyburn, who had been scheduled to speak, never arrived. The party was over before he was declared the winner.

Other incumbents

U.S. Rep. Russell Fry won a second term representing the 7th Congressional District over his Democratic opponent Mal Hyman. Fry was winning his seat by 64% when the AP called the race at 8:52 p.m.

The 7th Congressional District, added after the 2010 census, is anchored by fast-growing Horry County and includes the entire Grand Strand. It extends through the Pee Dee and along the border with North Carolina through Chesterfield County.

U.S. Rep. Ralph Norman won his fourth full term to the 5th Congressional District over Democrat Evangeline Hundley. Norman was winning with 62% over Hundley’s 38% when that race was called at 8:55 p.m.

The 5th Congressional District is anchored in Norman’s home county of York south of Charlotte. It stretches from a chunk of Spartanburg County along the state’s border with North Carolina southeast to Sumter County.

U.S. Rep. Joe Wilson won a 12th full term in Congress representing the 2nd Congressional District over Democratic challenger David Robinson II.

Wilson was winning with 65% over Robinson’s 35% when that race was called at 8:59 p.m.

The 2nd Congressional District stretches from the Georgia border, including all of Aiken and Barnwell counties, to northern Richland County. It includes all of Wilson’s home county of Lexington and a western chunk of Orangeburg County.

SC Daily Gazette reporter Jessica Holdman contributed to this report.