United States Senate election in South Carolina, 1996

The 1996 South Carolina United States Senate election was held on November 5, 1996 to select the U.S. Senator from the state of South Carolina. Popular incumbent Republican Senator Strom Thurmond fairly easily won re-election against Democratic challenger Elliott Springs Close.

Democratic Primary

The South Carolina Democratic Party held their primary for governor on June 11, 1996. Elliott Springs Close, a 43-year old political novice from Columbia, entered the Democratic primary and faced token opposition from black photographer Cecil J. Williams. Close was a wealthy heir of a textile business, a brother-in-law of President Clinton's chief of staff Erskine Bowles, who styled himself as a fiscal conservative and a social moderate. Even though he proclaimed himself as such, he took positions that would align himself with the liberal wing of the Democratic party. Close would not have voted to balance the budget, he agreed with the Don't ask, don't tell policy of the military initiated by Clinton and he supported continuing welfare as a federal entitlement program.

Republican Primary

The South Carolina Republican Party held their primary on June 11, 1996 and the contest pitted 93-year old incumbent Senator Strom Thurmond against two relatively unknown candidates. Secretary of State James Miles was the only Republican statewide official who had not endorsed Strom Thurmond and it was rumored that he was considering entering the primary. Thurmond's press secretary, Mark Goodin, criticized Miles for not endorsing Thurmond and told those who contributed to Miles campaign fund that they were contributing to a contest against Thurmond, not the state's other Senator, Democrat Fritz Hollings. Miles soon endorsed Thurmond which left Harold G. Worley, a state representative from Myrtle Beach, and Charlie Thompson, an educator from Charleston, as the only opponents to Thurmond's election. Worley spent $600,000 of his own money and based his campaign almost solely on Thurmond's age. He questioned Thurmond's mental ability to make decisions and whether he had the capacity to fill out a full term, which would put Thurmond at 100-years old. Nevertheless, Thurmond cruised to a primary victory and Worley only carried Horry County.

General election campaign

The race between Thurmond and Close boiled down to whether Thurmond could retain the affection of voters who had re-elected him over and over or whether Close could convince the voters that Thurmond's age was an impediment to effective service for the state. Thurmond therefore adopted a non-confrontational approach to the campaign. He chose to not debate Close, not only because he had not debated an opponent since Olin D. Johnston in the 1950 Senate election, but also because it would only emphasize the 50-year age difference between the candidates. Thurmond energetically traversed the state greeting the voters and pointed out to them that with his experience, he could more effectively serve the state than a political neophyte.

Close ran television advertisements that highlighted the age issue by declaring that although Thurmond had admirably served the state for over fifty years, it was time for someone new to represent South Carolina. He poured almost a million dollars into his campaign, but his campaign never remained focus. For instance, trying to not appear too wealthy, Close traded his fancy foreign car for a Cadillac. He acquired a speeding ticket in the Cadillac and a newspaper criticized him for driving a luxury automobile. Frustrated, Close then switched his Cadillac for a Buick. Another instance of his jumbled campaign came when said that his family's textile factories did not lay off an employees during the Great Depression. Yet a week after this statement, three mills were closed and 850 employees were out of work.

By the day of the election on November 5, polls had shown that the voters thought it was time for Thurmond to retire, but they did not want to throw him out of office. Close spent almost a million dollars of his fortune to defeat Thurmond and his decision to raise a million dollars from outside sources was attacked by the Thurmond campaign of a lack of confidence by Close in his own campaign. Thurmond spent a little more than $2.6 million on the race and was said to have "dodged the bullet" by "The State" reporter Lee Bandy after his victory. [Bass, p321] The campaign aides of Thurmond stated he could have been defeated had either former Governor Richard Riley or 5th district congressman John M. Spratt, Jr. run against him.

Election results

Election box candidate with party link
party = Republican Party (United States)
candidate = Strom Thurmond
votes = 620,326
percentage = 53.4
change = -10.8 Election box candidate with party link
party = Democratic Party (United States)
candidate = Elliott Springs Close
votes = 511,226
percentage = 44.0
change = +11.5 Election box candidate with party link
party = Libertarian Party (United States)
candidate = Richard T. Quillian
votes = 12,994
percentage = 1.1
change = -0.7Election box candidate with party link
party = Reform Party (United States)
candidate = Peter J. Ashy
votes = 9,741
percentage = 0.8
change = +0.8Election box candidate with party link
party = Natural Law Party (United States)
candidate = Annette C. Estes
votes = 7,697
percentage = 0.7
change = +0.7Election box candidate
party = "No party"
candidate = Write-Ins
votes = 141
percentage = 0.0
change = -0.1Election box majority
votes = 109,100
percentage = 9.4
change = -22.3Election box turnout
votes = 1,162,125
percentage = 64.0
change = +8.8
colspan=5 |Republican hold
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frame|300px|none|1996 South Carolina U.S. Senate election map, by percentile by county.

ee also

*List of United States Senators from South Carolina
*United States Senate elections, 1996

Notes

References

*cite book | last = Bass | first = Jack | coauthors=Marilyn W. Thompson | title = Strom: The Complicated Personal and Political Life of Strom Thurmond | year = 2005 | publisher = PublicAffairs | pages = pp. 319-321
*cite news | first=Joshua | last=Green | title=A Gambling Man
url=http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200401/green-brieflives | publisher=The Atlantic | date=2004-01-01 | accessdate=2008-01-28
*cite news | first=Kevin | last=Sack | title=The Age Issue Dogs Senator Thurmond, 93 | url=http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C01EEDE1739F932A25755C0A960958260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=all | publisher=The New York Times | date=1996-06-11 | accessdate=2008-01-28
*cite news | title=South Carolina | url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,985484,00.html | publisher=Time | date=1996-11-04 | accessdate=2008-01-28