United States Senate election in South Carolina, 2004

The 2004 South Carolina United States Senate election was held on November 2, 2004 to select the U.S. Senator from the state of South Carolina. The seat was left open after incumbent Democratic Senator Fritz Hollings opted to retire than fight a tough re-election battle. Jim DeMint, a Republican Representative of the 4th congressional district, defeated the Democratic challenger Inez Tenenbaum in the general election.

Democratic Primary

The South Carolina Democratic Party held their primary for Senator on June 8, 2004. Inez Tenenbaum, then the South Carolina Superintendent of Education and the most popular elected Democratic official in the state, easily defeated former congressional aide Ben Frasier in the primary election.

General election campaign

DeMint entered the general election campaign severely weakened from the primary fight, having spent most of his campaign funds. He stressed to the voters that he would follow conservative principles and provide an important Republican vote in the closely divided Senate. Democrats fared poorly in statewide elections in South Carolina, so Tenenbaum tried to make the race about issues rather than party identification. She attacked DeMint's support of the FairTax proposal because it would increase the sales tax by 23%. DeMint took a noticeable drop in the polls at the beginning of October, but by the end of the month the voters saw Tenenbaum's attacks as empowering the IRS because at least DeMint was offering a credible way to reform the tax system. The election victory by DeMint merely cemented South Carolina's shift to the Republican column as the best candidate the Democrats could offer was soundly defeated by the typical 10 point margin.

Election results

Election box candidate with party link
party = Republican Party (United States)
candidate = Jim DeMint
votes = 857,167
percentage = 53.6
change = +7.9 Election box candidate with party link
party = Democratic Party (United States)
candidate = Inez Tenenbaum
votes = 704,384
percentage = 44.1
change = -8.6 Election box candidate with party link
party = Constitution Party (United States)
candidate = Patrick Tyndall
votes = 13,464
percentage = 0.8
change = +0.8Election box candidate with party link
party = Libertarian Party (United States)
candidate = Rebekah E. Sutherland
votes = 10,678
percentage = 0.7
change = -0.9 Election box candidate
party = United Citizens Party
candidate = Tee Ferguson
votes = 5,859
percentage = 0.4
change = +0.4 Election box candidate with party link
party = Green Party (United States)
candidate = Efia Nwangaza*
votes = 4,245
percentage = 0.3
change = +0.3Election box candidate
party = "No party"
candidate = Write-Ins
votes = 1,286
percentage = 0.1
change = +0.1Election box majority
votes = 152,783
percentage = 9.5
change = +2.5Election box turnout
votes = 1,597,221
percentage = 69.0
change = +16.2
colspan=5 |Republican gain from Democratic
-
colspan=6|*Nwangaza ran under the Independence Party in Aiken and Calhoun counties; her totals are combined.
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frame|300px|none|2004 South Carolina U.S. Senate election map, by percentile by county.

Polling

References

*cite news | first=Peter E. | last=Harrell | title=SOUTH CAROLINA: Debate Poses Question of Who Has Momentum | url=http://www.nytimes.com/cq/2004/10/14/news-1386206.html?pagewanted=print&position= | publisher=The New York Times | date=2004-10-14 | accessdate=2008-02-01
*cite news | first=Michael | last=Graham | title=The Revolutionary | url=http://www.nationalreview.com/mgraham/graham200411011102.asp | publisher=National Review Online | date=2004-11-01 | accessdate=2008-02-01

ee also

*List of United States Senators from South Carolina