A history of the S.C. Democratic presidential primary
In Saturday’s Democratic primary, African-American voters are expected to cast more than half the ballots.
It is a right they only have had for 68 years, after a Richland County resident challenged what had been, until 1948, an all-white primary.
Since that primary, the Democratic Party has changed radically. Many Southern whites fled the party and its civil rights agenda, joining the Republican Party. African Americans, many of whom had been members of Abraham Lincoln’s Republican Party, took the opposite journey, joining the Democratic Party.
S.C. Democrats do not have the track record that their Republican neighbors can boast of for picking candidates who win their party’s nomination. From 1980 to 2008, the winner of the S.C. GOP primary went on to win the Republican Party’s presidential nomination.
But they have helped shape history — in 1948, 1992, 2004 and 2008.
That year, S.C. Democrats gave then-U.S. Sen. Barack Obama a critical boost when he won the state’s primary, marking the turning point in a campaign that sent him to the White House.
A look at how past S.C. Democratic presidential votes played out:
2008: Obama wins after bitter fight
In his first contest in a state with large numbers of African-American voters, Obama won South Carolina with 55 percent of the vote, aided by a historic turnout. More than 500,000 ballots were cast, exceeding the vote in that year’s Republican.
Then-U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York trailed with 27 percent of the vote. Former U.S. Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina finished third at 18 percent. (Shortly thereafter, Edwards’ political career imploded over an extramarital affair.)
The S.C. primary fight was brutal at times.
Obama supporters accused the Clintons of belittling Obama. Meanwhile, former President Bill Clinton accused U.S. Rep. Jim Clyburn of sabotaging his wife’s campaign.
Barack Obama: 294,898
Hillary Clinton: 140,990
John Edwards: 93,801
Bill Richardson: 726
Joe Biden: 693
Dennis Kucinich: 551
Chris Dodd: 247
Mike Gravel: 245
2004: S.C. ‘native son’ beats eventual nominee
Then-U.S. Sen. John Edwards pulled off a victory in the state’s Feb. 3 Democratic primary, capturing more than 45 percent of the vote. The Seneca native easily outpaced his nearest rival, U.S. Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts, who won 30 percent. The Rev. Al Sharpton placed third, at 9.6 percent.
More than 300,000 voters cast ballots in the primary.
However, the S.C. primary was one of only two primary contests that Edwards won. Kerry went on to win the Democratic nomination and, judging Edwards a rising star in the party, named the North Carolinian as his running mate.
John Edwards: 131,174
John Kerry: 88,508
Al Sharpton: 28,201
Wesley Clark: 21,011
Howard Dean: 13,815
Joe Lieberman: 7,147
Dennis Kucinich: 1,319
2000: No contest for Gore
S.C. Democrats did not have a primary, but Vice President Al Gore — the only choice S.C. Democrats had remaining — won all the state’s delegates in sparsely attended caucus meetings in March.
(U.S. Sen. Bill Bradley of New Jersey pulled out of the race before the S.C. caucuses, after losing 16 states to Gore on Super Tuesday.)
Al Gore: 8,864
Uncommitted: 514
Bill Bradley: 172
William Kreml: 107
1996: Clinton wins again
Incumbent President Bill Clinton won the state’s delegates after caucuses that featured little-known opponents.
1992: A big win for Clinton in the South
After losing in Iowa and finishing second in New Hampshire, then-Gov. Clinton of Arkansas won the S.C. Democratic primary.
Clinton won 63 percent of the vote in a field that had nine other candidates, including the late U.S. Sen. Paul Tsongas of Massachusetts. Almost 115,000 voted.
Bill Clinton: 73,221
Paul Tsongas: 21,338
Tom Harkin: 7,657
Jerry Brown: 6,961
Uncommitted: 3,640
Bob Cunningham: 1,369
Charles Woods: 854
Robert Kerrey: 566
William Kreml: 336
1988: Native-son Jackson wins
Civil rights activist Jesse Jackson, a Greenville native, won the S.C. caucus with 54 percent of the vote in an historic tally for an African-American candidate.
“Uncommitted” came in second at 19 percent, followed by then-U.S. Sen. Gore of Tennessee at 18 percent. Caucus turnout was a record, estimated at up to 45,000.
Jackson’s success in the primaries helped illustrate the importance of African-American voters in the Democratic Party.
1984: Jackson trails uncommitted
Jackson led South Carolina’s presidential caucus, winning 22 percent of the vote. But he came in second to “uncommitted,” which tallied 53 percent.
1948: The primary that changed S.C. politics forever
In 1947, George Elmore of Richland County challenged the state’s all-white Democratic primary for denying blacks the right to vote.
At the time, South Carolina effectively was a one-party state and winning the Democratic primary was tantamount to election.
The judge sided with Elmore, writing in his decision, "It is time for South Carolina to rejoin the Union."
In an effort to block integration of the primary, the party’s executive committee started requiring all voters to take an oath pledging to “support the social, religious, and educational separation of the races.”
But the judge threw out the oath, putting an end to the all-white primary.
SOURCE: Walter Edgar’s “South Carolina History”
This story was originally published February 22, 2016 at 12:32 PM with the headline "A history of the S.C. Democratic presidential primary."