South Carolina gubernatorial election, 2002

The 2002 South Carolina gubernatorial election was held on November 5, 2002 to select the governor of the state of South Carolina. Mark Sanford, the Republican nominee, beat incumbent Democratic Governor Jim Hodges to become the 115th governor of South Carolina. Hodges became only the third incumbent governor in South Carolina defeated for reelection.

Democratic Primary

Governor Jim Hodges faced no opposition from South Carolina Democrats and avoided a primary election.

Republican Primary

The South Carolina Republican Party held their primary on June 11, 2002 and the runoff on June 25, 2002. The contest became a race between Lieutenant Governor Bob Peeler from the Upstate and Mark Sanford, a former representative of the 1st congressional district in the Lowcountry. Sanford received the support of the candidates eliminated from the runoff election and easily defeated Peeler.

{| border="1" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" align="left" style="margin: 1em 1em 1em 0; background: #f9f9f9; border: 1px #aaa solid; border-collapse: collapse; font-size: 95%;"
- style="background-color:#E9E9E9"! colspan="4" | Republican Primary Runoff
- style="background-color:#E9E9E9"! colspan="1" style="width: 170px"|Candidate! style="width: 50px"|Votes! style="width: 40px"|%! style="width: 40px"|±%
-
- Party shading/Republican
Mark Sanford
align="right" | 183,820
align="right" | 60.1
align="right" | +21.5
- Party shading/Republican
Bob Peeler
align="right" | 121,881
align="right" | 39.9
align="right" | +2.3
-

General Election

The general election was held on November 5, 2002 and Mark Sanford was elected as the next governor of South Carolina. Turnout was higher than the previous gubernatorial election because of the competitive nature of the race between the two parties.

Election box candidate with party link
party = Republican Party (United States)
candidate = Mark Sanford
votes = 585,422
percentage = 52.9
change = +7.6 Election box candidate with party link
party = Democratic Party (United States)
candidate = Jim Hodges
votes = 521,140
percentage = 47.0
change = -6.3 Election box candidate
party = "No party"
candidate = Write-Ins
votes = 1,163
percentage = 0.1
change = -0.1Election box majority
votes = 64,282
percentage = 5.9
change = -2.1Election box turnout
votes = 1,107,725
percentage = 54.1
change = +1.1
colspan=5 |Republican gain from Democratic
-

frame|300px|none|2002 South Carolina gubernatorial election map, by percentile by county.

External links

* [http://www.sciway.net/hist/governors/hodges.html SCIway Biography of Governor James Hovis Hodges]
* [http://www.state.sc.us/scsec/returns.html South Carolina election returns]

ee also

*Governor of South Carolina
*List of Governors of South Carolina
*South Carolina gubernatorial electionssequence
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list=South Carolina gubernatorial elections
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