SC Democrats celebrate Biden’s win, while GOP vows to fight election results
Bernice Scott yelled “Hallelujah” after it was announced that Joe Biden would be the next president of the United States.
Scott and other South Carolina Democrats erupted with joy at the presidential election news Saturday.
Scott is a force in Midlands Democratic politics whose “Reckoning Crew” activist group worked to secure enough votes for Biden during the primary and register voters in South Carolina.
“What President Biden showed was so wonderful, and it really calmed me down a lot to stay focused, keep the faith and let the process go through, and that’s what I did,” Scott said.
Biden was declared the winner of the presidential election by the Associated Press and multiple national news outlets Saturday afternoon, after securing the final electoral votes he needed in Pennsylvania. President Donald Trump, however, had not conceded defeat Saturday afternoon.
Countering Scott’s enthusiasm were South Carolina Republicans, many of whom said Saturday they refused to recognize votes totals that indicate Biden has won the presidency.
The divide in South Carolina mirrors that of the nation, as “stop the steal” has become a rallying cry around Trump’s unsupported claims of election fraud. At the same time, celebrations of Biden’s victory have come together in the streets of American cities.
South Carolina’s most powerful Democrat, U.S. Rep. Jim Clyburn, appeared on CNN after Biden was announced as president-elect.
Clyburn not only praised Biden but also his running mate, Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif. Clyburn put the win into historical context.
Clyburn revealed for the first time that months ago, prior to Biden choosing Harris as his vice president, he had privately urged Biden to choose a woman of color.
“I don’t mind saying that I said to him in private that a lot of the results would turn on whether that woman would be a Black woman,” Clyburn said. “Whenever you tell a candidate what he must do publicly, that diminishes its standing with the public.”
Harris’ selection “cemented his relationship to the Black community,” Clyburn said.
On hearing Clyburn’s suggestion, about two or three days before Biden chose Harris, Biden told Clyburn he hadn’t made up his mind, saying, “My heart is in one direction. My head is in another,” Clyburn recounted.
Clyburn also urged progressives not to go too far left in their public statements and policy objectives.
“We got a big tent; we need to be respectful with each other,” Clyburn said. If Democrats try to get too extreme, “we are going to be back in the minority,” he said.
After Clyburn finished, CNN showed video of people dancing in the streets across America, and anchor Jake Tapper said, “Without Majority Whip Clyburn, today would not be happening.”
Tapper’s remark was a reference to Clyburn’s surprise public endorsement of Biden in South Carolina last February, just before the state’s Democratic presidential primary. That endorsement propelled Biden to a stunning win in that primary. In the next few weeks, nearly all of Biden’s rivals dropped out of the race.
After coming in fourth in the Iowa caucuses and fifth in the New Hampshire primary, South Carolina voters delivered Biden his first victory in the state’s Democratic Primary. After that win, his campaign picked up steam.
South Carolina Democratic Party Chairman Trav Robertson was out having a victory lunch Saturday afternoon when he heard the news, he said.
“The fact is Joe Biden and Kamala Harris won fair and square, and it started in February in South Carolina,” Robertson said.
He said the state’s Democratic Party was proud to play a pivotal role in Biden’s election.
“I knew this was going to happen,” Robertson said.
Democratic Rep. Joe Cunningham of Charleston, who lost his reelection bid to Republican state lawmaker Nancy Mace, said the country “elected a good and decent man.”
“A man of honesty and character,” Cunningham said of Biden. “Someone who will turn our country around, back to what it’s supposed to be.”
He congratulated Biden and said, “Congratulations America. We’re back.”
The state’s GOP, however, isn’t conceding the presidency to the Democrat president-elect yet.
About 150 Trump supporters gathered at the S.C. State House about noon on Saturday for what was called “Stop the Steal” day.
The group chanted, “Count every legal vote!” and walked the State House grounds carrying flags of support for the Republican president.
Eric Cocoran said he helped organized the rally and was “very encouraged by turnout.”
South Carolina Republian Party Chairman Drew McKissick released a statement hours after news networks called the election for Biden that said, “Right now, the election is not over yet.”
“The Trump campaign has made it clear they’re investigating allegations of voting irregularities and fraud,” said McKissick in an emailed statement. “All legal votes should be counted, illegal votes should not. The legal battles will continue into next week. A winner will be decided after they conclude and the country should wait on those results.”
For days, Republicans and President Trump had claimed without evidence that votes were illegally cast, many news outlets have reported.
Saturday afternoon, U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, South Carolina’s most prominent Republican, said he received a sworn affidavits from the Trump campaign from a “Mr. Richard Hopkins,” a postal worker from Erie, Pennsylvania.
“In the affidavit, Mr. Hopkins alleges that postal supervisory officials hatched a plan to backdate ballots mailed after the election,” Graham’s statement said.
“It is imperative that all credible allegations of voting irregularities and misconduct be investigated to ensure the integrity of the 2020 elections,” Graham said. “The presidential election remains close in multiple states, and as Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, all credible allegations of voting irregularities and misconduct will be taken seriously.”
S.C. state Sen. Dick Harpootlian, D-Richland, an attorney and longtime Biden ally, predicted Trump won’t concede, despite Biden winning the majority of the popular vote and Electoral College votes.
“Trump doesn’t have it in him to be gracious, to be honorable,” said Harpootlian, a former S.C. Democratic Party chair. “It will be a couple of more weeks before it becomes obvious to Trump and those around him that he’s moving out of the White House on Jan. 20.”
As for assertions that fraud helped Biden get his votes, Harpootlian said, “No one would disagree that every legal vote should be counted. However, there’s no evidence of any fraud in any state. Before you throw doubt on this election, you need some proof — more than third-hand hearsay and isolated anecdotal incidents — that fraud has occurred.”
Harpootlian said Biden “does not lie. He does not make things up or denigrate women, and he certainly doesn’t play to the worst of us.”
Harpootlian called on prominent South Carolina Republican politicians to “to be honorable and ask the president to accept reality.”
Even with likely challenges coming from Trump and his followers, Scott, who pushed for Biden to win from the beginning, said she told her members of the Reckoning Crew to keep calm and let the process work.
This story was originally published November 7, 2020 at 3:21 PM.