United States Senate election in South Carolina, 2002
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The 2002 South Carolina United States Senate election was held on November 5, 2002 to select the U.S. Senator from the state of South Carolina. The seat was left open after incumbent Republican Senator Strom Thurmond planned to retire from the Senate at the age of 100. Lindsey Graham, a Republican Representative of the 3rd congressional district, defeated the Democratic challenger Alex Sanders in the general election.
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[edit] Democratic Primary
Alex Sanders, the former president of the College of Charleston, entered the race and faced no opposition from South Carolina Democrats, thereby avoiding a primary election.
[edit] Republican Primary
Representative Lindsey Graham had no challenge for the Republican nomination and thus avoided a primary election. This was due in large part because the South Carolina Republicans were preoccupied with the gubernatorial race and also because potential rivals were deterred by the huge financial war chest Graham had amassed early in the campaign.
[edit] General election campaign
The election campaign between Graham and Sanders pitted ideology against personality. Graham spread his message to the voters that he had a consistent conservative voting record and that his votes in Congress closely matched that of outgoing Senator Strom Thurmond. Sanders claimed that he was best to represent South Carolina in the Senate because he held membership in both the NAACP, the Sons of Confederate Veterans, the NRA, and because he said that his positions more closely matched the citizens of the state. He said that he was against the death penalty for religious reasons, supported abortion rights, and was for greater government involvement in education. Graham attacked Sanders for these positions consistently throughout the campaign, but Sanders hit back at Graham for wanting to privatize social security.
Graham scored an impressive victory in the general election and the margin of victory proved that Democrats had little chance of winning an election in the state for a federal position. He achieved his victory because he rolled up strong margins the Upstate and was able to also achieve a majority in the Lowcountry, an area which Sanders had been expected to do well since he hailed from Charleston. However, strong support in the Lowcountry for Republican gubernatorial candidate Mark Sanford doomed Sanders chances of running up a margin in the coastal counties.
[edit] Election results
| South Carolina U.S. Senate Election, 2002 | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
| Republican | Lindsey Graham | 600,010 | 54.4 | +1.0 | |
| Democratic | Alex Sanders | 487,359 | 44.2 | +0.2 | |
| Constitution | Ted Adams | 8,228 | 0.7 | +0.7 | |
| Libertarian | Victor Kocher | 6,684 | 0.6 | -0.5 | |
| No party | Write-Ins | 667 | 0.1 | +0.1 | |
| Majority | 112,651 | 10.2 | +0.8 | ||
| Turnout | 1,102,948 | 53.9 | -10.1 | ||
| Republican hold | |||||
[edit] Polling
| Source | Date | Graham (R) | Sanders (D) |
|---|---|---|---|
| SurveyUSA | November 4, 2002 [1] | 49% | 48% |
| Mason-Dixon Political/Media Research | October 29, 2002 [2] | 53% | 36% |
| SurveyUSA | October 27, 2002 [3] | 49% | 48% |
| SurveyUSA | October 20, 2002 [4] | 53% | 44% |
| Mason-Dixon Political/Media Research | October 13, 2002 [5] | 51% | 34% |
| Zogby International | October 11, 2002 [6] | 47% | 35% |
[edit] See also
- List of United States Senators from South Carolina
- United States Senate elections, 2002
- South Carolina gubernatorial election, 2002
[edit] References
- Bullock, Charles S.; Mark J. Rozell (2006). The New Politics of the Old South: An Introduction to Southern Politics. Rowman & Littlefield, pp. 39-41.
- Hammond, James. "Graham claims Thurmond legacy for U.S. Senate", GreenvilleOnline.com, 2002-11-06. Retrieved on 2008-01-31.
- Johnson, Sasha. "S.C. Democrats eye Thurmond, fall elections", CNN, 2002-05-03. Retrieved on 2008-01-31.
- Kiker, Douglas. "Trying To Fill Ol' Strom's Shoes", CBS News, 2002-08-09. Retrieved on 2008-01-31.
- Manjoo, Farhad. "Guns, lies and the Internet in South Carolina", Salon.com, 2002-11-01. Retrieved on 2008-01-31.
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