South Carolina Senate

The South Carolina Senate is the upper house of the South Carolina General Assembly, the lower house being the South Carolina House of Representatives. It consists of 46 senators elected from single member districts for four-year terms at the same time as United States Presidential elections.

The South Carolina Constitution of 1895 provided for each county to elect one senator for a four-year term. The election of senators was staggered so that half of the state Senate was elected every two years. After the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1964 for the case "Reynolds v. Sims", the state Senate was reapportioned in 1966 as a temporary measure into 27 districts with 50 members for two-year terms. In 1967, the state Senate was again reapportioned, this time into 20 districts with 46 members for four-year terms. The number of districts was reduced to 16 in 1972 and in 1984, they were eliminated with the creation of single member districts.

Make-up of South Carolina Senate

Leadership

Lieutenant Governor André Bauer (R) is the President of the Senate, Glenn F. McConnell (R-Charleston) is the President Pro Tempore, and John W. Drummond (D-Greenwood County) is the President Pro Tempore Emeritus.

Members of the South Carolina Senate

Except as noted, all Senators were elected in November 2004. All terms expire in November 2008.

(1) Elected in 2006 special election.
(2) Elected in 2007 special election.

District	Senator	Party	Residence
1	Thomas C. Alexander	Republican	Walhalla
2	Larry A. Martin	Republican	Pickens
3	Kevin L. Bryant	Republican	Anderson
4	William H. O'Dell	Republican	Greenwood
5	Lewis R. Vaughn (1)	Republican	Greer
6	Michael L. Fair	Republican	Greenville
7	Ralph Anderson	Democrat	Greenville
8	David L. Thomas	Republican	Greenville
9	Daniel B. Verdin III	Republican	Laurens
10	John W. Drummond	Democrat	Ninety Six
11	Glenn G. Reese	Democrat	Inman
12	John D. Hawkins	Republican	Spartanburg
13	James H. Ritchie, Jr.	Republican	Spartanburg
14	Harvey S. Peeler, Jr.	Republican	Gaffney
15	Robert W. Hayes, Jr.	Republican	Rock Hill
16	Chauncey K. Gregory	Republican	Lancaster
17	Linda H. Short	Democrat	Chester
18	Ronnie W. Cromer	Republican	Prosperity
19	Kay Patterson	Democrat	Columbia
20	John E. Courson	Republican	Richland County
21	Darrell Jackson	Democrat	Hopkins
22	Joel Lourie	Democrat	Columbia
23	John M. Knotts, Jr.	Republican	West Columbia
24	W. Greg Ryberg	Republican	Aiken
25	A. Shane Massey (2)	Republican	Edgefield
26	Nikki G. Setzler	Democrat	West Columbia
27	Vincent A. Sheheen	Democrat	Camden
28	Dick Elliott	Democrat	North Myrtle Beach
29	Gerald Malloy	Democrat	Hartsville
30	Kent M. Williams	Democrat	Marion
31	Hugh K. Leatherman, Sr.	Republican	Florence
32	J. Yancey McGill	Democrat	Kingstree
33	Luke A. Rankin	Republican	Myrtle Beach
34	Raymond E. Cleary III	Republican	Murrells Inlet
35	Phil P. Leventis	Democrat	Sumter
36	John C. Land III	Democrat	Manning
37	Lawrence K. Grooms	Republican	Bonneau
38	Randy Scott	Republican	Summerville
39	John W. Matthews, Jr.	Democrat	Bowman
40	C. Bradley Hutto	Democrat	Orangeburg
41	Glenn F. McConnell	Republican	Charleston
42	Robert Ford	Democrat	Charleston
43	George E. Campsen III	Republican	Isle of Palms
44	Paul G. Campbell, Jr. (2)	Republican	Goose Creek
45	Clementa C. Pinckney	Democrat	Ridgeland
46	Catherine C. Ceips (2)	Republican	Beaufort

Past Make-up of the Senate

^(a) The election of a Democrat from Abbeville was declared void and the seat remained vacant. ^(b) All 7 were members of the Conservative Party of South Carolina. ^(c) After the 2000 elections, the Senate was evenly split between 23 Democrats and 23 Republicans. A Democrat, J. Verne Smith of Greer, switched to the Republicans to break the tie. ^(d) Republicans gained an additional seat in a 2007 special election. The current party makeup is 27 Republicans and 19 Democrats.

External links

* [http://www.scstatehouse.net/html-pages/senate2.html South Carolina State House Online]
** [http://www.scstatehouse.net/html-pages/resources.html South Carolina Legislative Information Tracking System] allows users to track legislative information via custom reports, tracking lists or subscription services. Services are provided via web search or Palm Pilot.
* [http://scsenatedems.org/ The South Carolina Senate Democratic Caucus]
* [http://scsenategop.com/ The South Carolina Senate Republican Caucus]
* [http://www.vote-smart.org/official_state_legislator.php?type=office&state_id=SC&criteria=upper Project Vote Smart - State Senate of South Carolina]