South Carolina 2012 Election Results

South Carolina held its general election on November 6, 2012, deciding 170 legislative seats. No chamber changed party control.

Highlights

• The cycle was shaped in the spring, when the state Supreme Court ruled that primary candidates who had not filed a financial disclosure form (a statement of economic interests) with their candidacy papers had to be removed from the ballot. More than 100 candidates were knocked off, and some returned in November as petition candidates, listed without a party label.
• The purge set up the only defeat of a sitting senator. Katrina Shealy (petition), bounced from the spring ballot, petitioned her way back on and beat Sen. Jake Knotts (R) by about 7 points in Senate District 23 with help from Gov. Nikki Haley's PAC, though her campaign said Knotts outspent her about 15 to 1. Petition candidates also won five House seats:
  • Samuel Rivers Jr. (petition), District 15
  • Raye Felder (petition), District 26
  • Mike Ryhal (petition), District 56, by about 100 votes over another petition candidate
  • Robert Ridgeway III (petition), District 64
  • Kevin Hardee (petition), District 105
• Beyond the petition races, 9 seats changed party. Beth Bernstein (D) unseated Rep. Joan Brady (R) by about 13 points in House District 78, a seat that stayed Democratic after redistricting. Republicans picked up two open Democratic seats: Greg Hembree (R) won Senate District 28, vacated by the retiring Dick Elliott, by about 34 points, and Craig Gagnon (R) won House District 11 by about 16 points.
• Voters approved Amendment 1, which has governors and lieutenant governors run as a ticket starting in 2018 and lets the Senate elect its own presiding officer.

Legislature

• House (124 seats): 48 D, 75 R, 1 other or vacant before the election, 46 D, 73 R, 5 other or vacant after; control stayed with Republicans.
• Senate (46 seats): 19 D, 27 R before the election, 18 D, 28 R after; control stayed with Republicans.

Legislative races

Ballot measures