Who will face Cunningham in November? SC’s 4-way House race leaves Republicans anxious
South Carolina’s Republican Party has for the past year ramped up its attention and resources to take on Democratic U.S. Rep. Joe Cunningham after a stunning upset in 2018 when, for the first time since the early 1980s, the Lowcountry U.S. House seat turned blue.
Now, the GOP just needs its candidate, and in two weeks Republican voters will decide their pick in the June 9 primary.
And while four candidates — Chris Cox, Kathy Landing, Nancy Mace and Brad Mole — have for months competed for ears and eyes up and down the coastal district that stretches from Summerville to Charleston to Hilton Head Island, polling and cash have zeroed in on two.
“Whoever protects the coast and the pocketbook, that’s who wins,” said Catherine Templeton, who ran in a five-way S.C. Republican governor’s primary race in 2018, and lives in Mount Pleasant but says she will not endorse a candidate in the 1st District primary.
“A Republican challenger is going to have to offer something a great deal different and more to the Lowcountry.”
1st District key to GOP majority
Landing and Mace argue they are the ideal alternative to Cunningham.
Landing, a 57-year-old financial planner who sits on the Mount Pleasant Town Council, is lesser-known on the political scene.
She announced her campaign back in June, and has pitched herself as the Lowcountry’s true conservative, a candidate who is out to protect voters’ pocketbooks and beliefs and says she’ll help win back suburban moms and Independents.
But even without the big stage political experience, she’s been able to reel in endorsements that include local leaders, South Carolina’s former U.S. Sen. Jim DeMint, the U.S. House Freedom Caucus’ political fundraising arm and former U.S. Rep. Tommy Hartnett, who represented the 1st Congressional District in the 1980s.
“There are no financial planners in Washington,” Landing said by phone Thursday. “I’ve seen first-hand bad policy and how it hurts every day people. It’s really important to have boots-on-the-ground experience.”
Mace, on the other hand, has been a known name in South Carolina since she became the first female to graduate from what was the state’s all-male military college, The Citadel. She primary challenged U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham in 2014, and in 2016 was S.C. director for then-presidential candidate Donald Trump’s campaign.
And she boosted that ID after she told her own story of sexual assault on the House floor last year in a speech to advocate for incest and rape exceptions in legislation to ban abortions at six weeks and in advocating for separate legislation signed by Gov. Henry McMaster this year banning the shacking or restraining of pregnant inmates or detainees in S.C. prisons and jails.
First elected to the S.C. House in a 2018 special election, the 42-year-old from Daniel Island differentiates herself in the race as a go-getter who can work across party lines but also stand up to the party to help push policy that will directly affect the constituents she would represent. She also pitches herself as someone who can raise the money needed to adequately compete with Cunningham.
“I am someone who is fiscally conservative and a true reflection of the district,” Mace said by phone Thursday. “I have the track record of being a truly independent voice.”
Mace also has been able to win over big-name backers, including U.S. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy of California, U.S. Rep. Steve Scalise of Louisiana and anti-tax group Club for Growth. She’s also been endorsed by U.S. Rep. Elise Stefanik’s E-PAC, which helps to boost the number of Republican women in Congress.
Winning for Women, a nonprofit working to elect Republican women, has not yet endorsed in the 1st District race.
“But we are excited to see two strong female candidates leading the pack,” said the group’s spokeswoman Olivia Perez-Cuban.
Both Landing and Mace pitch themselves as the ideal candidate to help bring Trump’s agenda to reality.
But political strategists and observers note Trump is Trump, and it’s key for candidates to find the balance between supporting the candidate and being their own candidate.
“You cannot be a one dimensional person,” said Scott English, who was chief of staff for then-S.C. Gov. Mark Sanford, who was 1st District representative for three terms in the ‘90s before he became governor and three terms after.
“You’re in May and the election is in November, which might as well be 15 years away in political months. That’s a long time. Associating yourself with a bit of a wildcard, who may or may not have a good economy, there could be 200,000 COVID-19 deaths, you can’t control those things,” English said. “You have to keep your message on what you can control. You don’t want to create doubt though that you’re not loyal to the president, but stay focused on your issues.”
South Carolina Republican Party chairman Drew McKissick told The State on Wednesday that any of the four hopefuls could pitch a good fight against Cunningham. But ultimately, he acknowledged, the candidate who is going to beat Cunningham in a hotly-contested congressional race is going to be someone who can bring the party together and, of course, turn out voters.
Republicans are anxious to take back the 1st District congressional seat, hoping to avoid any missteps made two years ago when then-state Rep. Katie Arrington, R-Dorchester, unseated Sanford but then lost by almost 4,000 votes, or 1.4 percent to Cunningham.
“It’s at the top of the list,” McKissick said. “The road to the majority of the House of Representatives runs through the 1st Congressional District. We can’t win the majority without that district. We recognize that here.”
Beyond messaging, the Republican challenger to Cunningham will have to be able to raise money.
The latest federal filings show some candidates have been more successful than others.
Mace has raised more than $1.3 million compared with Landing’s more than $627,000 — half of that from a self loan. And in the latest fundraising period ending May 20, Mace raised nearly $190,000 and had $560,025 cash left on hand, compared to Landing’s $59,000 raised in the period and $129,587 left in her account.
“I would argue we’re the only one who has raised money,” Mace told The State by phone on Thursday. “From any candidate, no one is going to work harder than I will. I think that reflects in my fundraising efforts.”
But Landing’s campaign isn’t concerned, telling The State Thursday that Republican fundraising groups, the NRCC and GOP leaders plan to have boots on the ground past June anyway and will help drive in resources if Landing is the nominee.
“Resources are going to be here,” said Landing’s campaign spokesman, Michael Mule. “I would believe, having done the race in 2018, leaders like Kevin McCarthy, Scalise will be just as passionate with Kathy as the nominee in the general election as their primary supported candidate.”
Cox, founder of “Bikers for Trump,” and Mole, chairman of the Lowcountry Affordable Housing Coalition, raised less than $5,000 combined from in the latest period that ended May 20. In total, Cox has raised more than $114,000 and Mole more than $5,900.
Neither responded to multiple requests for comment.
Meanwhile, Cunningham has $2.6 million left in the bank as of his latest report.
Immediately, the Democratic Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee celebrated.
“Just one more reason why Rep. Cunningham is going to win re-election this fall,” the group’s spokesman Avery Jaffe said by email.
A tight race for ‘fiercely independent’ voters
McKissick, the state GOP chairman, says three-fourths of his time and energy over the past year has been spent focused on the 1st District, starting last summer when the S.C. GOP launched its statewide field operation, Victory Project, months ahead of when it traditionally kicks off.
More than a year ago, the National Republican Congressional Committee, which does not endorse in primaries, already had started sharpening its talking points for the race, putting the district among its top five races the GOP should not have lost in 2018.
The party’s focus on the district that Cook Political Report has described as a toss up is only set to intensify.
Unlike in 2018, this is a presidential election year with Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden at the top of the ticket.
Trump won the district in 2016 — and the state overall — but political observers note no party should get too comfortable. Charleston County, for instance, went for then-Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton by nearly 51% of the vote in 2016. In Beaufort County, home of Hilton Head Island, voters chose Trump by almost 55% of the vote and in Dorchester, Trump won with nearly 56%.
“There is a fiercely independent streak there,” English said. “Not politically, but in terms of how people think government should play a role in their lives. The proudly independent tradition of South Carolina remains in effect. Nothing has changed. Only the names of the people participating in the process.”
Asked Wednesday to weigh in, Sanford told The State he has been unplugged and spending time at his farm since he dropped his presidential bid last fall.
“I wholeheartedly, viscerally disagree with much of what Trump stands for and certainly the way he communicates it,” said Sanford, who lost his House seat in part because of his criticism of Trump. “That puts me as an odd man out right now. Where I would go isn’t where the current political tide is.”
Sanford said he is not endorsing a candidate in the 1st District and wouldn’t predict who will win.
But, he said, “It’ll be a competitive race, and districts tend to go back toward their composition in a presidential year. We’ve got that. A lot of it is outside a candidate’s control. If there were some reason that Trump were to implode between here and November, the race would fall to the favor of Cunningham. If that doesn’t happen and you get traditional turnout numbers ... it makes that race tough.”
Past June and with a nominee, McKissick said he’s focused on party unity and ensuring the candidate carries a conservative message:
“Our goal in this primary is to have everybody on the same program, singing from the same sheet of music.”
