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South Carolina exhibits progress in voting rights, showing evident advances in the rates of minority voter registration and participation.  Differences in political preferences still are evident among African American and white South Carolinians, though these differences are a function of party preference rather than race per se.

In 1964, 37.3 percent of the state’s black population, compared to 75.7 percent of the white population, had signed up to vote.  By the 1980s, registration rates differed little by race, and since 1998 the two races have reported being registered at highly comparable rates.  In 2002, the black registration rate was par to whites and in the 2004 election, each race reached record high levels of registration--white registration was only three points above.

Beginning in 1990, comparisons between the black voting age population in South Carolina and the general population in the non-South show a higher reported rate in South Carolina. In six of the thirteen election years since 1980, South Carolina voting age blacks report turning out to vote at higher rates than whites.  For the three most recent election years, the reported rates of participation are similar.  Similarly, black self-reported participation in South Carolina outpaces the non-South in the three most recent election years. Racial registration data from South Carolina also indicates that African Americans in the electorate exceed the census bureau’s estimated black share of South Carolina’s voting age population.

The number of African American elected officials in South Carolina increased from 28 in 1969 to 534 in 2004.  Since 1993, South Carolina has elected one African-American congressman who is an African-American candidate of choice, James Clyburn.  The first African-American to win a legislative seat in the modern times won election to the House in 1970, and the black proportion of seats grew to 20% of seats by 1995. The number of black seats in the 46 member Senate has fluctuated between six and eight since 1991 and is currently eight.   While no African American has won a statewide office in South Carolina in modern times, 42 percent of the Democrats in the Senate are black. 

Since 1994, statewide elective offices and the congressional delegation have been generally dominated by Republicans, who defeat Democratic candidates regardless of race. African Americans competed for two statewide posts in 2002, with vote shares comparable to those of white Democrats who lost statewide bids in 2002. This shows that party seems to be a better predictor with Republicans winning all but two of the statewide offices being contested. 

South Carolina has a history of racially-polarized voting. However, in general elections, there has been an evolution toward less white cohesiveness and greater black cohesiveness within the electorate.  The white vote in general elections has generally slipped away from Democrats, while the black vote became highly cohesive for Democratic nominees regardless of race.  Democrats in general struggle to achieve a third of the white vote, and in the absence of incumbency, white vote shares oscillate between a quarter and three-tenths. This degree of electoral frustration is evident from presidential races down to low-profile statewide contests. Since 2000, the vote among whites for black Democratic candidates has been consistent with that of white candidates of the same incumbency status.

Edward Blum is a visiting fellow at AEI. Abigail Thernstrom is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute.