Dueling closed primary bills exposes ongoing rift within SC Republicans
Pushes on whether to close primaries has divided the GOP on how far to go, and the ongoing divide may keep the House from moving forward on the issue.
One bill pushed by House GOP leadership and the state Republican Party is an incremental step towards closed primaries, that would enable people to register with a party. It also would limit who could vote in particular partisan primaries, only those registered with the particular party and those who are unaffiliated voters. It has 24 sponsors.
A competing bill would only allow people to vote in a party primary if registered as a member of that party, unless the party opts to open it to unaffiliated voters with advance notice. It’s been pushed by members of the hard-line conservative House Freedom Caucus and has 29 sponsors.
State Rep. Brandon Newton, R-Lancaster, and assistant majority leader, who is the lead sponsor on the bill supported by the S.C. GOP, acknowledged the odds of the concept becoming law this year are long as the Senate has shown no indication it will take up the issue this year, and Gov. Henry McMaster has indicated he would veto bills to close the primaries or registration by party.
“To me, it seems these bills put up obstacles (to vote),” McMaster said recently. Newton conceded which approach to take has led to a Republican fight, with much of the discourse on social media.
“This has been the nastiest debate internally that I’ve ever witnessed within the party structure,” Newton said. “The divide on this topic and the divide between these two pieces of legislation have truly put, I believe, the party, into a civil war.”
The version pushed by House leadership and the party would allow people to vote in a primary if they’re registered with the party or if they’re unaffiliated at least 45 days before a primary.
It also requires those running for office in a primary to have voted in two out of the last three primaries. However, parties would be able to grant waivers. The proposed rule also would not affect the upcoming primaries in 2026, GOP party officials said. Instead, it would only affect subsequent primaries.
Newton defended the notion of allowing independents to vote in primaries.
Newton pointed how the Republican Party primary saw a 23% growth in voters from 2012 to 2016, fueled by Donald Trump’s candidacy.
“I think that not allowing independents to vote in our primary is detrimental to the Republican Party and our future and our success,” Newton said. “If you want to prevent mischief of people who are active members of one party other doing it, I agree. But if your goal is to prevent independent voters from having the opportunity to vote in the Republican primary, to me, that is a red line, but I would never cross or support.”
On a statewide basis, people crossing over hasn’t changed the outcomes of elections, Newton said, pointing to 2008 and 2020 efforts by Republican activists calling on people to vote in the Democratic presidential primary.
“I do want to point out, obviously, in a failing way, because the people he wanted Republicans to vote for did not win. So I think it’s worth pointing out that even in a coordinated effort like that, the outcome was not changed,” Newton said.
But those who support the other approach, objected to the proposed rule to require potential candidates to have voted in two out of the last three primaries.
Tyler Dykes, a Republican candidate in the 1st Congressional District, and who was pardoned by President Trump for his actions on Jan. 6, 2021, said his biggest issue with the bill pushed by the state Republican is the state party can decide who may run for office.
“What this law does is it takes power out of the hands of the people,” Dykes said during his House committee testimony. “It takes power out of the hands of people that would be good candidates and puts it into the arms of the people that are not our elected representatives, but that run the state party.”
Mark Lynch, a Greenville Republican businessman mounting a primary challenge against U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, said he supported the Freedom Caucus version.
“In the Republican Party, there’s so much division because majority of the Republicans are not Republicans,” Lynch said while testifying to in front of House members. “One of the hardest things for me running for the United States Senate I’m battling is the Republican Party, because they’re not Republicans, and they want to keep open primaries. That’s how they continue to get elected.”
Because of the divide, it appears the effort to close primaries still needs work.
“I’ve also heard agreement that there’s disagreement, and if this issue is going to be successful, if we’re going to go from sentiment to policy, which is, I think, where we’re stuck right now,” said state Rep. Jay Jordan who led a panel of House Judiciary Committee members that held a hearing on the closed primary bills. “We’re stuck with how we shape a sentiment into a policy, and if we’re going to create policy that is right and stands up to court testing and survives and is what everyone in South Carolina can look to and say is legally sound and correct. We’ve still got a ways to go.”
But the lack of movement in the House led to firm response from the state party.
“All this does is continue to frustrate Republicans who’ve spoken loud and clear about this issue for years in our platform, in a unanimous resolution from our state committee and with their votes in multiple Republican primaries by an average of 82%,” S.C. GOP Chairman Drew McKissick said in a statement. “What Republicans want is not in question. The question is when it gets done.“
While Republicans spar over which approach to take, the state Democratic Party is against the proposal.
“We’ve long believed that it serves voters best to pick which primary they want to go vote in. I’m not trying to make people register. It sounds nice, but why are we limiting voters?” SC Democratic Party Executive Director Jay Parmley said. “We don’t have primaries everywhere. There are some counties that only have Democratic primaries. There are some counties only have Republican primaries. There’s not always a primary for US Senate or always a primary for governor, on both sides.”
Parmley and Democratic Party Chairwoman Christale Spain dismissed the notion Democrats are crossing over to vote in Republican primaries.
“We told everyone in the world, if you’re a Democrat, even though our primary had no competition, we’re like, please don’t go vote in the Republican presidential primary. Vote in ours,” Parmley said. “I find it laughable when the Republicans made the argument that we’re sophisticated enough to infiltrate their primaries. We’re not.”
This story was originally published January 23, 2026 at 11:09 AM.
