United States Senate election in South Carolina, 2002

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.

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.

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.

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.

Election results

Election box candidate with party link
party = Republican Party (United States)
candidate = Lindsey Graham
votes = 600,010
percentage = 54.4
change = +1.0 Election box candidate with party link
party = Democratic Party (United States)
candidate = Alex Sanders
votes = 487,359
percentage = 44.2
change = +0.2 Election box candidate with party link
party = Constitution Party (United States)
candidate = Ted Adams
votes = 8,228
percentage = 0.7
change = +0.7Election box candidate with party link
party = Libertarian Party (United States)
candidate = Victor Kocher
votes = 6,684
percentage = 0.6
change = -0.5Election box candidate
party = "No party"
candidate = Write-Ins
votes = 667
percentage = 0.1
change = +0.1Election box majority
votes = 112,651
percentage = 10.2
change = +0.8Election box turnout
votes = 1,102,948
percentage = 53.9
change = -10.1
colspan=5 |Republican hold
-

frame|300px|none|2002 South Carolina U.S. Senate election map, by percentile by county.

Polling

References

*cite book | last = Bullock | first = Charles S. | coauthors=Mark J. Rozell | title = The New Politics of the Old South: An Introduction to Southern Politics | year = 2006 | publisher = Rowman & Littlefield | pages = pp. 39-41
*cite news | first=James | last=Hammond | title=Graham claims Thurmond legacy for U.S. Senate | url=http://greenvilleonline.com/news/2002/11/06/2002110631150.htm | publisher=GreenvilleOnline.com | date=2002-11-06 | accessdate=2008-01-31
*cite news | first=Sasha | last=Johnson | title=S.C. Democrats eye Thurmond, fall elections | url=http://archives.cnn.com/2002/ALLPOLITICS/05/13/south.carolina/ | publisher=CNN | date=2002-05-03 | accessdate=2008-01-31
*cite news | first=Douglas | last=Kiker | title=Trying To Fill Ol' Strom's Shoes | url=http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/08/09/politics/main518141.shtml | publisher=CBS News | date=2002-08-09 | accessdate=2008-01-31
*cite news | first=Farhad | last=Manjoo | title=Guns, lies and the Internet in South Carolina | url=http://archive.salon.com/tech/feature/2002/11/01/southcarolina_guns/print.html | publisher=Salon.com | date=2002-11-01 | accessdate=2008-01-31

ee also

*List of United States Senators from South Carolina
*South Carolina gubernatorial election, 2002