SC’s McMaster against closing primary voting. Will Democrats vote in the GOP primary?
Gov. Henry McMaster, a former state GOP party chairman, said he sees no need to close the primaries despite calls from within the state Republican Party.
Ahead of Saturday’s First in the South Republican presidential primary, outside groups have tried to push Democratic and independent voters who didn’t vote in the Feb. 3 presidential primary to participate in the GOP presidential primary. The groups want non-Republican voters to support former Gov. Nikki Haley over former President Donald Trump who leads in the polls ahead of the primary.
The state GOP platform calls for allowing people to register by political party and for only opening primaries to people who are registered to the particular political party.
“I think that’s an unnecessary impediment,” McMaster told reporters Tuesday. “I know people believe or theoretically can see a large number of people crossing over to cause mischief and vote against somebody. But that hasn’t happened in fact in our state.”
His stance has been a longstanding position he has held.
Whether the efforts of outside groups, such as PrimaryPivot and Independents Moving the Needle, will be successful is doubtful. Even with efforts by those outside groups, Trump leads Haley 60% to 38%, according to an Insider Advantage poll.
McMaster even said the state has very few crossover voters.
McMaster, a supporter of Trump, said the open primary system in the state helped grow the Republican Party in South Carolina to become the majority in the state.
“If they want to vote in a primary it’s because they want to go in and vote for somebody,” McMaster said. “That has been a great strength of South Carolina. If you close those primaries, that’s just one more thing that everybody has to register for or maybe carry a card. We think an inviting party is better. Our history has proven that it has worked and that’s how we became the majority party.”
This story was originally published February 20, 2024 at 1:27 PM.
