SC Democrats elect Clyburn-backed Christale Spain, 1st Black woman to lead state party
South Carolina Democrats on Saturday elected Christale Spain to lead the state party, charging her with turning around past election losses and ensuring the state doesn’t lose its status as holding the first Democratic presidential primary after 2024.
Spain, who formerly worked as the party’s executive director, becomes the first Black woman to chair the S.C. Democratic Party.
She succeeds former Chair Trav Robertson, who opted not to seek reelection.
“Christale Spain has dedicated her life and energies to electing Democrats,” U.S. Rep. Jim Clyburn, who poured $10,000 into Spain’s campaign, said Saturday. “She has proven to be successful. She deserves a promotion.”
Two other candidates challenged Spain for chair: Activist Catherine Fleming Bruce and Brandon Upson, a former party executive and chair of its Black caucus.
Spain and Upson were seen as the race frontrunners, but Spain garnered 686 votes of the roughly 1,300 delegates in Saturday’s election, leaving Upson to concede before delegates voting for him could be counted “for the sake of us, (for) the sake of unifying this party,” he said.
Bruce garnered 30 votes.
In addition to Spain, Colleen Condon also made party history Saturday after they were elected as the first non-binary 1st vice chair in party history, and Mayra Riveria-Vazquez became the first Hispanic candidate elected as 2nd vice chair. Michelle Brandt was elected as the party’s 3rd vice chair.
As chair, Spain said she’ll work to unify the party after weeks of party infighting, particularly over social media.
“I’m a unifier. I ran a race that was above board,” Spain said. “I talked about who I was and what I’m going to do. And I look forward to working with my opponents. I look forward to working with the people who didn’t vote for me.”
Spain is currently a senior adviser at the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee for Black voter engagement. Her campaign declined to say whether she’ll stay in that role.
In 2022, Spain led a communications and national organizing program for the DCCC, crediting with winning 12 out of 13 competitive U.S. House races, three of which were in North Carolina. She also had the backing of the party’s biggest names, including Robertson, Democratic National Committee Chairman Jaime Harrison and Jim Hodges, South Carolina’s last Democratic governor.
“She has the experience, judgment, and strategic vision to get South Carolina Democrats back on the winning track and I know she will be an excellent chair,” Harrison said in a statement.
Upson, meanwhile, had the backing of Democratic state Reps. Gilda Cobb-Hunter, John King, Russell Ott, Lonnie Hosey and Roger Kirby as he made inroads in rural counties. And he had the backing of former Democratic state Reps. Wendy Brawley, Shedron Williams and Chardale Murray, who all lost their House seats in the 2022 elections.
Spain’s victory gives her control over the 2024 Democratic presidential primary, which will kick off the nominating process.
Running a smooth primary will be key if Democrats want to keep the slot in 2028, expected to be more competitive.
“It’s going to take me leveraging my experience and our resources from others from across the country basically to implement a winning strategy so that we can maintain our status, so that we can be strong moving into 2028, because this is a test run and we know it,” Spain said. “But we’re taking it seriously, and I’m going to be the work of leading this party as first in the nation.”
The new chairwoman also will be charged with trying to reverse the party’s fortunes at the ballot box, which includes losing five House and Senate seats in 2020 and eight House seats in 2022.
“We’re going to do year-round voter engagement. We’re going to do the work of engaging our voters so that we can continue to mobilize them,” said Spain, who led the party’s turnout efforts in 2020. “We know who our voters are, and we’re going back after them, and we’re going to turn them out plus more.”
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This story was originally published April 29, 2023 at 11:59 AM.
