SC Democrats flip 10 state House seats, undoing GOP supermajority

COLUMBIA — South Carolina’s GOP will no longer rule with supermajority power in both chambers following Democratic upsets in the state House.

Democrats managed to flip 10 seats across the Palmetto State on Election Day, according to unofficial results from the state Election Commission, though one of those will require an automatic recount under state law.

An 11th Republican seat also remains in question as Simpsonville Rep. David Vaughn’s 42-vote win over Democrat John MacCarthy also heads to a recount.

The flips erase gains from the last two election cycles. The GOP first took two-thirds control with the 2022 election.

“It sends a message to the Republican-led General Assembly,” South Carolina Democratic Party Chairwoman Christale Spain told the SC Daily Gazette Tuesday night. “This is from the national level all the way down back home at the Statehouse. We’re primed. The infrastructure is built. We’re ready to start really competing all across the state.”

Spain also said she thinks it “brings the temperature down in the chamber” after an unsuccessful, last-minute attempt to redraw South Carolina’s congressional map ahead of the midterms.

“It is a mandate that Democrats are not going to take it,” Spain said.

A statement from House Republican leadership took on a confident tone, despite the losses, as the party still holds 79 out of 124 House seats.

“Voters have given us the opportunity to continue delivering results and that’s exactly what we intend to do,” Rep. Brandon Newton, R-Lancaster, said in a statement.

“We have important work ahead of us and we look forward to getting back to work,” Speaker Murrell Smith said in a statement.

Half of the flips were in the Lowcountry.

Incumbents who lost included:

• Rep. Daniel Gibson, a commercial pilot and two-term incumbent from Greenwood
• Rep. Lucas Atkinson, a consultant from the Pee Dee first elected in 2016
• Rep. Fawn Pedalino, a Realtor from Turbeville, who in 2022 flipped the Clarendon County seat long considered a Democratic stronghold
• Rep. Jackie Terribile, a marketing consultant and freshman from the Charlotte suburb of Fort Mill
• Rep. Brandon Cox, a U.S. Air Force veteran and two-term House member from Goose Creek
• Rep. Greg Ford, a U.S. Air Force veteran from Summerville narrowly elected in a January special election to replace the late Rep. Chris Murphy following his resignation
• Rep. Harriet Holman, a U.S. Army veteran from Ridgeville, who in 2024 ousted Democratic Joe Jefferson to flip the seat
• Rep. James Teeple, a child care center operator and U.S. Navy veteran from Johns Island first elected in 2024 after former Rep. Matt Leber successfully ran for state Senate
• Rep. Bill Hager, a retired engineer from Hampton, who flipped the seat in 2022

It also appears likely that recently elected Majority Leader Micah Caskey, a West Columbia attorney, also will lose to Democrat Joe Madge by just over 100 votes. With a margin of less than 1%, state election officials will have to recount to verify the results.

Voters first elected Caskey to the seat a decade ago.

In three other Lowcountry races, Republican incumbents Sylleste Davis, Gary Brewer and Jordan Pace, who leads the ultra-conservative House Freedom Caucus, eked out wins and narrowly avoided mandatory recounts. Each one by less than 400 votes.

Democrats’ largest margin among the flipped seats was in Greenwood and McCormick counties, where healthcare administrator Jumelle Brooks beat out Gibson by nearly 10 percentage points.