South Carolina 2020 Election Results

South Carolina held its general election on November 3, 2020, deciding 170 legislative seats. No chamber changed party control.

Highlights

• Republicans widened their hold on both chambers, ending one seat short of two-thirds in the Senate and two short in the House, and Senate Democrats fell to their smallest number ever in the chamber. The bigger majorities arrived just ahead of the once-a-decade redistricting, which Republicans now control.
• Democrats failed to flip any of their Senate targets and lost three longtime incumbents instead:
  • Senate District 27: Penry Gustafson (R) unseated Sen. Vincent Sheheen (D), the party's two-time nominee for governor, by fewer than 900 votes, in a race FITSNews said Republicans had essentially written off.
  • Senate District 10: Billy Garrett (R) beat Sen. Floyd Nicholson (D) of Greenwood by about 12 points.
  • Senate District 11: Josh Kimbrell (R) beat Sen. Glenn Reese (D), who had held the Spartanburg seat for three decades, by about 11 points.
  Days later, Minority Leader Nikki Setzler stepped down from the post.
• In the House, Republicans took two more Democratic seats: Sandy McGarry (R) beat Rep. Mandy Powers Norrell (D), the party's 2018 lieutenant governor candidate, by about 10 points in House District 44, and Vic Dabney (R) unseated Rep. Laurie Funderburk (D) by about three points in House District 52. The Post and Courier tied the losses to the record-spending U.S. Senate race, which nationalized Statehouse races in a year that set records for straight-ticket voting.
• The closest races went both ways:
  • Rep. Justin Bamberg (D) kept House District 90 by fewer than 60 votes over Glenn Posey (R), the only state-level contest sent to an automatic recount.
  • Sen. Sandy Senn (R), whom FITSNews described as widely expected to succumb to a blue wave, held Senate District 41 over Sam Skardon (D) by about two points.
  • Rep. Kirkman Finlay (R) held House District 75 over Rhodes Bailey (D) by about 260 votes.
  • Democrats narrowly held two House seats: Rep. Spencer Wetmore (D) in House District 115 and Chardale Murray (D) in the open House District 116, each by under two points.
• Across the 170 legislative races, all 5 seats that changed hands went from Democrat to Republican, each by unseating a sitting Democrat. Another 5 races finished inside two points, and 80 seats drew a single candidate.

Legislature

• House (124 seats): 44 D, 78 R, 2 other or vacant before the election, 43 D, 81 R after; control stayed with Republicans.
• Senate (46 seats): 19 D, 27 R before the election, 16 D, 30 R after; control stayed with Republicans.

Legislative races