Republicans flip seats to clinch supermajority in South Carolina Senate
COLUMBIA, S.C. (WCBD) — A red wave swept across South Carolina on Tuesday, with state Republicans up and down the ballot capitalizing on a dominant performance by President-elect Donald Trump.
“Yesterday, Republicans all across our state added an exclamation point to what we already knew and that is that South Carolina is Trump country,” South Carolina Republican Party Chairman Drew McKissick told reporters Wednesday morning. “It was the kind of enthusiasm that, quite frankly, Democrats just couldn’t compete with.”
All 170 seats in the state legislature — 46 in the Senate and 124 in the House — were up for grabs, but more than half were uncontested or virtually decided in the June GOP primary.
With nearly all the results counted, the GOP seems poised to flip four seats in the state Senate, giving them a veto-proof supermajority. The party entered the Nov. 5 general election needing to flip only one to earn that advantage.
Republican Jeff Zell defeated Democratic Sen. Kevin Johnson by just over a point in District 36, which covers portions of Claredon, Darlington, Florence, and Sumter counties.
Freshman Democratic Sen. Vernon Stephens, of Orangeburg, lost his reelection bid in District 39 to Republican Tom Fernandez, a Summerville attorney who raised eyebrows in March when he filed for office wearing a gas mask. Fernandez’s victory, once certified, will end nearly four decades of Democratic control in the district.
Republicans are also expected to gain control of two other Senate seats —Districts 17 and 29 —but the margin in each of those races is less than a point, triggering an automatic recount.
Sen. Mike Fanning, a Fairfield Democrat, trails Republican challenger Everett Stubbs by 32 votes in District 17. The margin between Democratic Sen. Gerald Malloy and Republican JD Chaplin in District 29 is slightly larger with Chaplin ahead by 287 votes.
The Charleston area gained a senator on Tuesday with Democrat Ed Sutton winning the newly-created District 20 seat. The district, which encompases parts of West Ashley, was moved from Richland County following the 2020 census to account for faster population growth in the area.
In all, Republicans now hold 34 seats in the state Senate and Democrats hold the other 12.
As for the state House, Republicans entered the 2024 cycle hoping to build on 2022 successes in which the party flipped eight seats. The GOP maintained their supermajority, winning 88 seats on Election Day.
Democrats won 36 seats, though one of those victories belonged to former state Rep. Marvin Pendarvis of North Charleston.
Pendarvis, who ran unopposed for reelction in District 113, did not withdraw his name from the ballot despite resigning from the seat in September amid legal troubles. It is unclear what happens now.
And with it not being the night Democrats hoped for, state party leaders are already looking ahead to 2026.
“The reality here is: We worked hard, we spent money, but we came up short,” South Carolina Democratic Party Chair Christale Spain said during a Wednesday afternoon call. “And we’re going to continue to do the work here as a state party to enage our voters this election cycle to prepare for the next election cycle.”
