Who else in SC has made the jump from Democratic Party to GOP? 5 notable names
First Judicial Circuit Solicitor David Pascoe kicked off his campaign Monday for attorney general after he switched from the Democratic Party to the Republican Party in April.
Many other elected officials in the Palmetto State have made the same switch over the years. Here are other notable defections in South Carolina:
Strom Thurmond
Strom Thurmond was elected governor as a Democrat in 1946 and then a U.S. senator in the 1950s. He also ran for president in 1948 as a Dixiecrat. He switched to the Republican Party in 1964 amid the Civil Rights movement. He stayed in office until he decided not to run for reelection in the 2002 campaign.
David Beasley
Former Gov. David Beasley was first a state representative in the late 1970s. He eventually became speaker pro-tem. But that was as a Democrat. He switched parties in 1991? before he was elected governor as a Republican in 1994. Beasley served one-term as the state’s top executive.
Molly Spearman
Former state Superintendent of Education Molly Spearman, who was at the helm of the Department of Education during the COVID pandemic, first was a state representative from Saluda County. She was elected as a Democrat in 1992. She then switched to the Republican Party in the mid-1990s. She left the state House in 1999. Spearman was later elected superintendent of Education in 2014 and served in that role from 2015 to 2023.
Hugh Leatherman
Hugh Leatherman, the longtime Senate Finance Committee chairman, was once the most powerful lawmaker in the state legislature. But before he started his two-decade chairmanship over the budget writing committee with the ability to direct state dollars toward specific uses and projects, Leatherman was elected as a Democrat. He made the switch to the Republican Party in 1995 as part a wave of southern Democrats in response to the 1994 Republican revolution.
In doing so, he was able to solidify his path to chairmanship of the Finance Committee in a chamber that operates committee chairmanships based on seniority of the party in the majority.
Arthur Ravenel Jr.
Arthur Ravenel Jr., the late former U.S. congressman, was first elected to the state House in the 1952 as a Democrat and served three terms. He made the switch to the Republican Party in 1960 and ran for state Senate. He was unsuccessful in his runs, and eventually ran for Congress in 1980, when he was elected to represent the Lowcountry 1st Congressional District from 1987 to 1995.
After leaving Congress, he was elected to the state Senate and served from 1997 until 2003.
