United States presidential election in South Carolina, 2008
Encyclopedia
The 2008 United States presidential election in South Carolina took place on November 4, 2008 throughout all 50 states and D.C., which was part of the 2008 United States presidential election
. Voters chose 8 representatives, or electors to the Electoral College, who voted for President
and Vice President
.
South Carolina
was won by Republican nominee John McCain
by a 9.0% margin of victory. Prior to the election, all 17 news organizations considered this a state McCain would win, or otherwise considered as a safe red state. Despite the significant proportion of African Americans in the state, South Carolina still remains like all other states throughout the South, a GOP stronghold at the state and federal levels. Republican John McCain
kept South Carolina in the GOP column in 2008, clinching 53.87% of the vote.
, has become a Republican stronghold in the past few presidential elections. Since Barry Goldwater
carried the state in 1964
, the only Democratic presidential nominee to win it was Jimmy Carter
of neighboring Georgia
in 1976
. Since then, the Palmetto State has been a safe bet for the Republicans. This trend continued in 2008, even though South Carolina has one of the highest African-American populations in the country. Neither Obama or McCain seriously contested the state as it was viewed by both campaigns as a safe GOP/McCain/red state.
On Election Day, McCain captured South Carolina with 53.97% of the vote. McCain dominated the populous northwest, while Obama did best in the cities of Columbia
and Charleston
, as well as the rural, heavily African American areas. In comparison to the past two elections where the margin was much larger, Obama's relative closeness can be attributed to the large turnout of African American voters in the state who cast their votes 96% for Obama. McCain's margin of victory in South Carolina was much less than that of George W. Bush
who carried the Palmetto State in 2004
with 57.98% of the vote to John Kerry
's 40.90%, a 17.08-percent margin of victory compared to McCain's 8.97% in 2008, resulting in an 8.11-percent swing to the Democrats in 2008.
During the same election, incumbent Republican U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham
was reelected over Democrat Bob Conley
. Graham received 57.52% of the vote while Conley took in 42.25%. At the state level, however, Democrats picked up two seats in the South Carolina House of Representatives
.
.
The electors of each state and the District of Columbia met on December 15, 2008 to cast their votes for President and Vice President. The Electoral College itself never meets as one body. Instead the electors from each state and the District of Columbia met in their respective capitols.
The following were the members of the Electoral College from the state. All 8 were pledged to John McCain
and Sarah Palin
:
United States presidential election, 2008
The United States presidential election of 2008 was the 56th quadrennial presidential election. It was held on November 4, 2008. Democrat Barack Obama, then the junior United States Senator from Illinois, defeated Republican John McCain, the senior U.S. Senator from Arizona. Obama received 365...
. Voters chose 8 representatives, or electors to the Electoral College, who voted for President
President of the United States
The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....
and Vice President
Vice President of the United States
The Vice President of the United States is the holder of a public office created by the United States Constitution. The Vice President, together with the President of the United States, is indirectly elected by the people, through the Electoral College, to a four-year term...
.
South Carolina
South Carolina
South Carolina is a state in the Deep South of the United States that borders Georgia to the south, North Carolina to the north, and the Atlantic Ocean to the east. Originally part of the Province of Carolina, the Province of South Carolina was one of the 13 colonies that declared independence...
was won by Republican nominee John McCain
John McCain
John Sidney McCain III is the senior United States Senator from Arizona. He was the Republican nominee for president in the 2008 United States election....
by a 9.0% margin of victory. Prior to the election, all 17 news organizations considered this a state McCain would win, or otherwise considered as a safe red state. Despite the significant proportion of African Americans in the state, South Carolina still remains like all other states throughout the South, a GOP stronghold at the state and federal levels. Republican John McCain
John McCain
John Sidney McCain III is the senior United States Senator from Arizona. He was the Republican nominee for president in the 2008 United States election....
kept South Carolina in the GOP column in 2008, clinching 53.87% of the vote.
Primaries
- South Carolina Democratic primary, 2008South Carolina Democratic primary, 2008The 2008 South Carolina Democratic presidential primary took place on January 26, 2008. Senator Barack Obama of Illinois won the primary's popular vote by a 28.9% margin....
- South Carolina Republican primary, 2008South Carolina Republican primary, 2008The South Carolina Republican primary, 2008 was held on January 19, with 24 delegates at stake. The Republican National Committee took half of South Carolina's 47 delegates away from them because the state committee moved its Republican primary before February 5...
Predictions
There were 17 news organizations who made state by state predictions of the election. Here are there last predictions before election day:- D.C. Political Report: Republican
- Cook Political ReportCook Political ReportThe Cook Political Report is an independent, non-partisan online newsletter that analyzes elections and campaigns for the United States House of Representatives, the United States Senate, Governor's offices and the American Presidency. The Cook Political Report is led by a staff of five...
: Solid Republican - Takeaway: Solid McCain
- Election Projection: Solid McCain
- Electoral-vote.comElectoral-vote.comElectoral-Vote.com is the website of computer scientist Andrew S. Tanenbaum. The site's primary content is poll analysis to project the outcome of U.S. elections. The site also includes commentary on related news stories. Well known for its color-coded electoral map of the United States, the...
: Strong Republican - Washington Post: Solid McCain
- PoliticoPolitico (newspaper)The Politico is an American political journalism organization based in Arlington, Virginia, that distributes its content via television, the Internet, newspaper, and radio. Its coverage of Washington, D.C., includes the U.S. Congress, lobbying, media and the Presidency...
: Solid McCain - Real Clear Politics: Solid McCain
- FiveThirtyEight.comFiveThirtyEight.comFiveThirtyEight is a polling aggregation website with a blog created by Nate Silver. Sometimes colloquially referred to as 538 dot com or just 538, the website takes its name from the number of electors in the United States electoral college...
: Solid McCain - CQ Politics: Safe Republican
- New York Times: Solid Republican
- CNNCNNCable News Network is a U.S. cable news channel founded in 1980 by Ted Turner. Upon its launch, CNN was the first channel to provide 24-hour television news coverage, and the first all-news television channel in the United States...
: Safe Republican - NPRNPRNPR, formerly National Public Radio, is a privately and publicly funded non-profit membership media organization that serves as a national syndicator to a network of 900 public radio stations in the United States. NPR was created in 1970, following congressional passage of the Public Broadcasting...
: Solid McCain - MSNBCMSNBCMSNBC is a cable news channel based in the United States available in the US, Germany , South Africa, the Middle East and Canada...
: Solid McCain - Fox News: Republican
- Associated PressAssociated PressThe Associated Press is an American news agency. The AP is a cooperative owned by its contributing newspapers, radio and television stations in the United States, which both contribute stories to the AP and use material written by its staff journalists...
: Republican - Rasmussen ReportsRasmussen ReportsRasmussen Reports is an American media company that publishes and distributes information based on public opinion polling. Founded by pollster Scott Rasmussen in 2003, the company updates daily indexes including the President's job approval rating, and provides public opinion data, analysis, and...
: Safe Republican
Polling
McCain won every single pre-election poll. The final 3 polls averaged McCain leading with 53% to 43%.Fundraising
John McCain raised a total of $2,574,332 in the state. Barack Obama raised $2,227,877.Advertising and visits
Obama spent $967,640. McCain and his interest groups spent $587,645. Neither campaign visited the state.Analysis
South Carolina, historically part of the Solid SouthSolid South
Solid South is the electoral support of the Southern United States for the Democratic Party candidates for nearly a century from 1877, the end of Reconstruction, to 1964, during the middle of the Civil Rights era....
, has become a Republican stronghold in the past few presidential elections. Since Barry Goldwater
Barry Goldwater
Barry Morris Goldwater was a five-term United States Senator from Arizona and the Republican Party's nominee for President in the 1964 election. An articulate and charismatic figure during the first half of the 1960s, he was known as "Mr...
carried the state in 1964
United States presidential election, 1964
The United States presidential election of 1964 was held on November 3, 1964. Incumbent President Lyndon B. Johnson had come to office less than a year earlier following the assassination of his predecessor, John F. Kennedy. Johnson, who had successfully associated himself with Kennedy's...
, the only Democratic presidential nominee to win it was Jimmy Carter
Jimmy Carter
James Earl "Jimmy" Carter, Jr. is an American politician who served as the 39th President of the United States and was the recipient of the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize, the only U.S. President to have received the Prize after leaving office...
of neighboring Georgia
Georgia (U.S. state)
Georgia is a state located in the southeastern United States. It was established in 1732, the last of the original Thirteen Colonies. The state is named after King George II of Great Britain. Georgia was the fourth state to ratify the United States Constitution, on January 2, 1788...
in 1976
United States presidential election, 1976
The United States presidential election of 1976 followed the resignation of President Richard Nixon in the wake of the Watergate scandal. It pitted incumbent President Gerald Ford, the Republican candidate, against the relatively unknown former governor of Georgia, Jimmy Carter, the Democratic...
. Since then, the Palmetto State has been a safe bet for the Republicans. This trend continued in 2008, even though South Carolina has one of the highest African-American populations in the country. Neither Obama or McCain seriously contested the state as it was viewed by both campaigns as a safe GOP/McCain/red state.
On Election Day, McCain captured South Carolina with 53.97% of the vote. McCain dominated the populous northwest, while Obama did best in the cities of Columbia
Columbia, South Carolina
Columbia is the state capital and largest city in the U.S. state of South Carolina. The population was 129,272 according to the 2010 census. Columbia is the county seat of Richland County, but a portion of the city extends into neighboring Lexington County. The city is the center of a metropolitan...
and Charleston
Charleston, South Carolina
Charleston is the second largest city in the U.S. state of South Carolina. It was made the county seat of Charleston County in 1901 when Charleston County was founded. The city's original name was Charles Towne in 1670, and it moved to its present location from a location on the west bank of the...
, as well as the rural, heavily African American areas. In comparison to the past two elections where the margin was much larger, Obama's relative closeness can be attributed to the large turnout of African American voters in the state who cast their votes 96% for Obama. McCain's margin of victory in South Carolina was much less than that of George W. Bush
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....
who carried the Palmetto State in 2004
United States presidential election, 2004
The United States presidential election of 2004 was the United States' 55th quadrennial presidential election. It was held on Tuesday, November 2, 2004. Republican Party candidate and incumbent President George W. Bush defeated Democratic Party candidate John Kerry, the then-junior U.S. Senator...
with 57.98% of the vote to John Kerry
John Kerry
John Forbes Kerry is the senior United States Senator from Massachusetts, the 10th most senior U.S. Senator and chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He was the presidential nominee of the Democratic Party in the 2004 presidential election, but lost to former President George W...
's 40.90%, a 17.08-percent margin of victory compared to McCain's 8.97% in 2008, resulting in an 8.11-percent swing to the Democrats in 2008.
During the same election, incumbent Republican U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham
Lindsey Graham
Lindsey Olin Graham is the senior U.S. Senator from South Carolina and a member of the Republican Party. Previously he served as the U.S. Representative for .-Early life, education and career:...
was reelected over Democrat Bob Conley
Bob Conley
Robert M. "Bob" Conley is an American pilot, engineer, and politician. He was the 2008 Democratic nominee for U.S. Senator from South Carolina; he ran against and lost to Republican incumbent Lindsey Graham....
. Graham received 57.52% of the vote while Conley took in 42.25%. At the state level, however, Democrats picked up two seats in the South Carolina House of Representatives
South Carolina House of Representatives
The South Carolina House of Representatives is the lower house of the South Carolina General Assembly, the upper house being the South Carolina Senate. It consists of 124 Representatives elected to two year terms at the same time as US Congressional elections...
.
Results
| United States presidential election in South Carolina, 2008 | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Running mate | Votes | Percentage | Electoral votes | |
| Republican Republican Party (United States) The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S... |
John McCain John McCain John Sidney McCain III is the senior United States Senator from Arizona. He was the Republican nominee for president in the 2008 United States election.... |
Sarah Palin Sarah Palin Sarah Louise Palin is an American politician, commentator and author. As the Republican Party nominee for Vice President in the 2008 presidential election, she was the first Alaskan on the national ticket of a major party and first Republican woman nominated for the vice-presidency.She was... |
1,034,896 | 53.87% | 8 | |
| Democratic Democratic Party (United States) The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous... |
Barack Obama Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Obama previously served as a United States Senator from Illinois, from January 2005 until he resigned following his victory in the 2008 presidential election.Born in... |
Joe Biden Joe Biden Joseph Robinette "Joe" Biden, Jr. is the 47th and current Vice President of the United States, serving under President Barack Obama... |
862,449 | 44.90% | 0 | |
| Libertarian Libertarian Party (United States) The Libertarian Party is the third largest and fastest growing political party in the United States. The political platform of the Libertarian Party reflects its brand of libertarianism, favoring minimally regulated, laissez-faire markets, strong civil liberties, minimally regulated migration... |
Bob Barr Bob Barr Robert Laurence "Bob" Barr, Jr. is a former federal prosecutorand a former member of the United States House of Representatives. He represented Georgia's 7th congressional district as a Republican from 1995 to 2003. Barr attained national prominence as one of the leaders of the impeachment of... |
Wayne Allyn Root Wayne Allyn Root Wayne Allyn Root is an American politician, entrepreneur, television and radio personality, author and political commentator. He was the 2008 Libertarian Party vice-presidential nominee. In June 2009 Richard Winger wrote he was the front runner for the 2012 Libertarian Presidential nomination... |
7,283 | 0.38% | 0 | |
| Constitution Constitution Party (United States) The Constitution Party is a paleoconservative political party in the United States. It was founded as the U.S. Taxpayers' Party by Howard Philips in 1991. Phillips was the party's candidate in the 1992, 1996 and 2000 presidential elections... |
Chuck Baldwin Chuck Baldwin Charles Obadiah "Chuck" Baldwin is an American politician and founder-pastor of Crossroad Baptist Church in Pensacola, Florida. He was the presidential nominee of the Constitution Party for the 2008 U.S. presidential election and had previously been its nominee for U.S. vice president in 2004... |
Darrell Castle Darrell Castle Darrell Castle is an American political figure, activist and attorney from Memphis, Tennessee, and was the vice presidential candidate of the Constitution Party in the 2008 United States presidential election.-Early life and education:... |
6,287 | 0.36% | 0 | |
| Petition | Ralph Nader Ralph Nader Ralph Nader is an American political activist, as well as an author, lecturer, and attorney. Areas of particular concern to Nader include consumer protection, humanitarianism, environmentalism, and democratic government.... |
Matt Gonzalez Matt Gonzalez Matthew Edward Gonzalez is an American politician, lawyer, and activist prominent in San Francisco politics. He currently serves as chief attorney in the San Francisco Public Defender's office.... |
5,053 | 0.26% | 0 | |
| Green Green Party (United States) The Green Party of the United States is a nationally recognized political party which officially formed in 1991. It is a voluntary association of state green parties. Prior to national formation, many state affiliates had already formed and were recognized by other state parties... |
Cynthia McKinney Cynthia McKinney Cynthia Ann McKinney is a former US Congresswoman and a member of the Green Party since 2007. As a member of the Democratic Party, she served six terms as a member of the United States House of Representatives. In 2008, the Green Party nominated McKinney for President of the United States... |
Rosa Clemente Rosa Clemente Rosa Alicia Clemente is a United States community organizer, independent journalist and hip-hop activist. She was the vice presidential running mate of 2008 Green Party Presidential candidate Cynthia McKinney in the 2008 U.S. Presidential election.Clemente was born and raised in South Bronx, New... |
4,461 | 0.23% | 0 | |
| Totals | 1,920,969 | 100.00% | 8 | |||
| Voter turnout (Voting age population) | 58.0% | |||||
By congressional district
John McCain carried five of the state’s six congressional districts in South Carolina, including one of the two districts held by a Democrat.| District | McCain | Obama | Representative |
|---|---|---|---|
| 56.50% | 42.27% | Henry E. Brown, Jr. Henry E. Brown, Jr. Henry Edward Brown, Jr. is a former U.S. Representative for , serving from 2001 until 2011. He is a member of the Republican Party... |
|
| 53.87% | 45.11% | Joe Wilson Joe Wilson (U.S. politician) Addison Graves Wilson, Sr., most commonly known as Joe Wilson , is the U.S. Representative for , serving since 2001. He is a member of the Republican Party... |
|
| 63.72% | 33 | J. Gresham Barrett J. Gresham Barrett James Gresham Barrett is the former U.S. Representative for , serving from 2003 until 2011. He is a member of the Republican Party. The district runs along the Savannah River in the northwestern part of the state.... |
|
| 60.43% | 37.91% | Bob Inglis Bob Inglis Robert Durden "Bob" Inglis, Sr. is a former U.S. Representative for , serving from 1993 to 1999, and then again from 2005 until 2011. He is a member of the Republican Party... |
|
| 53.04% | 45.80% | John M. Spratt, Jr. John M. Spratt, Jr. John McKee Spratt, Jr. is the former U.S. Representative for , serving from 1983 until 2011. He is a member of the Democratic Party. Spratt was the dean of the South Carolina congressional delegation, chairman of the U.S. House Committee on the Budget, and the second ranking Democrat on the U.S... |
|
| 34.89% | 64.15% | Jim Clyburn Jim Clyburn James Enos "Jim" Clyburn is the U.S. Representative for , serving since 1993, and the Assistant Democratic Leader since 2011. He was previously House Majority Whip, serving in that post from 2007 to 2011. He is a member of the Democratic Party... |
Electors
Technically the voters of SC cast their ballots for electors: representatives to the Electoral College. SC is allocated 8 electors because it has 6 congressional districts and 2 senators. All candidates who appear on the ballot or qualify to receive write-in votes must submit a list of 8 electors, who pledge to vote for their candidate and his or her running mate. Whoever wins the majority of votes in the state is awarded all 8 electoral votes. Their chosen electors then vote for President and Vice President. Although electors are pledged to their candidate and running mate, they are not obligated to vote for them. An elector who votes for someone other than his or her candidate is known as a faithless electorFaithless elector
In United States presidential elections, a faithless elector is a member of the Electoral College who does not vote for the candidate they have pledged to vote for...
.
The electors of each state and the District of Columbia met on December 15, 2008 to cast their votes for President and Vice President. The Electoral College itself never meets as one body. Instead the electors from each state and the District of Columbia met in their respective capitols.
The following were the members of the Electoral College from the state. All 8 were pledged to John McCain
John McCain
John Sidney McCain III is the senior United States Senator from Arizona. He was the Republican nominee for president in the 2008 United States election....
and Sarah Palin
Sarah Palin
Sarah Louise Palin is an American politician, commentator and author. As the Republican Party nominee for Vice President in the 2008 presidential election, she was the first Alaskan on the national ticket of a major party and first Republican woman nominated for the vice-presidency.She was...
:
- Benny Kinlaw
- Betty Sheppard Poe
- Katon Dawson
- Patrick Bonner Haddon
- Rebecca Delleney
- Shelby Phillips
- Susan Aiken
- Wayland Moody