Second Verse, Same as the First: The 2012 Presidential Election in the South

7: South Carolina

101 7 South Carolina “It’s Déjà Vu All Over Again” Cole Blease Graham Scott E. Buchanan Electoral Traditions Yogi Berra’s playful description offers a helpful perspective on South Carolina politics. For significant periods one party has dominated state politics. First, it was the Democrats from the end of Reconstruction until the 1960s. After a period of transition from the 1960s to the early 1990s, it has been the Republicans since 1995. Political winners over time, regardless of party, have traditionally had agricultural roots (traditionally , cotton and tobacco; lately, soybeans and pine trees). One industry , textiles, was dominant until the transition to a more diversified manufacturing base, including automobile and aircraft assembly and distribution centers for consumer products. A politics of sameness has been reinforced by conservative social and fiscal values throughout the state’s post–Civil War history. Any political change has been triggered typically by white political rage. White reaction to post–Civil War Reconstruction presaged the installation of legalized, state-­ based racial segregation in the 1890s. Whites’ negative reaction to national civil rights policies in the 1960s spurred the growth of the contemporary state Republican Party. After 102 H Cole Blease Graham and Scott E. Buchanan a period of some internal accommodation of national civil rights poli­ cies by Republicans, the Tea Party now rages against liberalism in Washington and, within the GOP, has helped promote conservative preferences in fiscal and social policy. Changing Partisan Divisions The transition from Democratic to Republican dominance in South Carolina took more than a century. After Reconstruction, Democrats saw back-­ to-­ back victories until the 1960s. Republicans had after all been the party of Lincoln, and the strife of Reconstruction led most white South Carolinians to favor Democratic presi­ den­ tial candidates, even if they were the necessary among undesirable choices. During this time African Americans, who would have favored the GOP as the party supporting their interests, and the few whites who opposed the Democrats were systematically excluded from the electorate. Con­ sequently, white Democrats dominated state politics until the national civil rights revolution of the 1960s. Except for the 1876 presi­ den­ tial election, the national Democratic Party tended to dismiss South Carolina’s Electoral College votes. Large waves of immigrants in other parts of the country during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries became Democrats because of the party’s support for labor unions, thus lessening Democratic dependence on the South. The growing opposition by national Democrats to racial segregation weakened the party’s attractiveness to many South Carolinians, but national Democrats did not need South Carolina’s votes to win presi­ den­ tial elections. Given the post–Civil War choice and repetitive politics, though, popular elections in South Carolina continued to be won by Democrats—­ at least in name—­ from statewide to local candidates. South Carolina Democrats began to give way in their support for the national party by backing the Dixiecrat ticket in 1948. The Dixie­ crats stridently opposed the national Democratic Party’s support for civil rights policies. The Dixiecrats were led by South Carolina’s J. Strom Thurmond, who was their candidate for presi­ dent. Some evidence suggests that white South Carolinians’ voting patterns were in flux throughout the 1950s and early 1960s.1 Although not a Dixiecrat, favorite son James F. Byrnes added more energy to South Carolina’s falling out with national Democrats. Byrnes served in the U.S. House and Senate and was “assistant presi­ dent” to Franklin D. Roosevelt and, ultimately, sec- South Carolina H 103 retary of state. He was also a U.S. Supreme Court justice for a time in the 1940s. Despite his extensive service and experience in all three branches of government, Byrnes found himself on the outs with national Democrats in 1944, as he opposed major party policies, especially on civil rights. When Byrnes’s name was floated for nomination as FDR’s running mate in 1944, nonsouthern delegates within the Democratic Party balked, resulting in Harry S Truman’s nomination for the vice presidency.2 Late in his political career, Byrnes won election as governor and worked mightily in 1952 to get Dwight D. Eisenhower elected presi­ dent. Byrnes invited Eisenhower to address a large crowd in front of the state capitol. Nevertheless, loyal Democrats continued to prevail in South Carolina. Illinois senator Adlai Stevenson won South Carolina’s Electoral College slate in 1952 and 1956, and Massachusetts senator...