South Carolina government and politics

The South Carolina General Assembly is the state legislature. It is bicameral, consisting of a 124-member South Carolina House of Representatives and a 46-member South Carolina Senate. Representatives serve two-year terms and Senators serve four-year terms. The two houses meet in the South Carolina State House. Each house is currently controlled by the Republican Party.

Originally, each county elected one senator and at least one representative. The vast differences between rural and urban counties gave rural areas an outsized influence over state government. This state of affairs ended with the federal case of Reynolds v. Sims, which mandated that state legislative districts be drawn based on population, and that that counties’ representatives must be roughly equal.

Historic Party Control

Below is a chart of party control in the South Carolina General Assembly since 1868.

The Family Court deals with all matters of domestic and family relationships, as well as generally maintaining exclusive jurisdiction over cases involving minors under the age of seventeen, excepting traffic and game law violations. Some criminal charges may come under Circuit Court jurisdiction.

The South Carolina Circuit Court is the trial court of general jurisdiction court for South Carolina. It consists of a civil division (the Court of Common Pleas) and a criminal division. (the Court of General Sessions). It is also a superior court, having limited appellate jurisdiction over appeals from the lower Probate Court, Magistrate's Court, and Municipal Court, and appeals from the Administrative Law Judge Division, which hears matters relating to state administrative and regulatory agencies. South Carolina's 46 counties are divided into 16 judicial circuits, and there are currently 46 judges. Circuit court judges are elected by the General Assembly to six-year terms.

The South Carolina Court of Appeals is the state intermediate appellate court. It hears all Circuit Court and Family Court appeals, excepting appeals that are within the seven classes of exclusive Supreme Court jurisdiction. The Court of Appeals is selected by the General Assembly to long six-year terms. The court comprises a chief judge, and eight associate judges, and may hear cases as the whole court, or as three panels with three judges each. The court may preside in any county.

The South Carolina Supreme Court is the state supreme court. The Chief Justice and four Associate Justices are elected to staggered ten-year terms. There are no limits on the number of terms a justice may serve, but there is a mandatory retirement age of 72. The overwhelming majority of vacancies on the Court occur when Justices reach this age, not through the refusal of the General Assembly to elect a sitting Justice to another term.

See also: South Carolina Supreme Court

South Carolina has had seven constitutions:

• 1776 – SC's first constitution
• 1778 – Disestablished the Anglican Church, created a popularly elected upper house
• 1790 – Expanded upcountry representation, further established General Assembly control over all aspects of government
• 1861 – Confederate constitution
• 1865 – Required to be readmitted to the Union, abolished property owning qualifications to vote, created popularly elected governor and granted veto power
• 1868 – Only constitution to be ratified by popular vote, provided for public education, abolished property ownership as a qualification for office holding, created counties with home rule, abolished race as limit on male suffrage
• 1895 – effectively disenfranchised black voters, requiring poll taxes, and literacy tests, to register to vote. In 1900 African Americans were 58% of the state population.[2] This exclusion of blacks from the political system was largely enforced until after passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which authorized federal oversight and enforcement of voter registration and elections to ensure citizens could exercise their constitutional rights.

Since 1895, many residents have called for a new Constitution, one that is not based on the politics of a post-Civil War population. Governor Mark Sanford called for constitutional reform in his 2008 State of the State speech. Several hundred amendments have been made to the 1895 Constitution (in 1966 there were 330 amendments). Amendments have been created to comply with federal acts, and for many other issues. The volume of amendments makes South Carolina's constitution one of the longest in the nation.[3]

• South Carolina Department of Public Safety
  • South Carolina Highway Patrol Division
  • South Carolina State Transport Police Division
  • South Carolina Bureau of Protective Services
• South Carolina Criminal Justice Academy
• South Carolina Department of Corrections
• SC Department of Corrections Training Academy
• SC Department of Corrections Tactical Teams (Rapid Response Team-S.O.R.T.-Sitcon)
• SC Department of Juvenile Justice
• South Carolina Department of Probation, Parole and Pardon Services
• South Carolina State Law Enforcement Division (SLED)
  • Homeland Security
• South Carolina Department of Natural Resources
  • South Carolina Climatology Department
• Department of Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse
• South Carolina Department of Mental Health

Historically, local governments in South Carolina have been fairly weak. For the most part, until the 1830s, towns were controlled by districts. According to historian Tom Downey, "the movement for incorporation initiated with a desire to implant order on unruly elements...which growing villages seemed to attract all too frequently."[4] The initial charters gave towns regulatory power which they used to "appoint constables, levy fines, and enact ordinances."[4] But, town councils were largely unable to pay their expenses with funds raised by just their fine revenue. In the late 1830s, the General Assembly started allowing select towns to tax property within their corporate limits.

The 1867 constitution established home rule for counties.[5] This was changed under the 1895 Constitution, which made no provision for local government and effectively reduced counties to creatures of the state. Each county's delegation to the General Assembly also doubled as its county council. Under this system, the state senator from each county exercised the most power.[6] Reynolds v. Sims required reapportionment according to the principle of "one man, one vote", which resulted in legislative districts crossing county lines. However, it was not until 1973 that the constitution was amended to provide for limited home rule at the county level. The Home Rule Act in 1975 implemented this.[7] This law provided for elected councils in each county. Nonetheless, the legislature still devotes considerable time to local issues, and county legislative delegations still decide many matters that are handled at the county level in most other states.

Municipal governments may incorporate as cities or towns. However, there is no legal difference between the two.[8] Compared to cities in neighboring states, South Carolina cities are fairly small in size and population, since state law makes annexation difficult.

Like most Southern states, South Carolina consistently voted Democratic in the 19th century and much of the 20th century as a part of the Solid South. The Democratic block was largely maintained by the disenfranchisement of most black voters from 1865 to the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The Republican Party became competitive in the 1960 presidential election when Richard Nixon lost the state to John F. Kennedy by just two percentage points. In 1964, Barry Goldwater became the first Republican to win the state since Reconstruction.

Since the election of 1964, South Carolina has voted for the Republican party in every presidential election, with the exception of 1976 when Jimmy Carter, a southern Democrat, was elected president. However, in state-wide and local elections, conservative Democrats still won many races until the end of the 20th century. The last conservative Democratic governor to be elected in South Carolina was Jim Hodges in 1998, and the last conservative Democratic U.S. Senator to serve was Fritz Hollings until 2005. Until the 1990s, South Carolina had a majority Democratic representation in both the U.S. House of Representatives and the General Assembly of South Carolina. While South Carolina has shifted between the Democratic and Republican parties, politics in South Carolina has consistently been conservative.

US Senate

The current South Carolina delegation to the U.S. Senate:

	Senator	Party	Since
	Lindsey Graham	Republican	January 3, 2003
	Tim Scott	Republican	January 2, 2013

US House of Representatives

South Carolina currently has seven representatives in Congress:

	District	Representative	Party	Since
	U.S. Rep. District 1	Nancy Mace	Republican	January 3, 2021
	U.S. Rep. District 2	Joe Wilson	Republican	December 18, 2001
	U.S. Rep. District 3	Jeff Duncan	Republican	January 3, 2011
	U.S. Rep. District 4	William Timmons	Republican	January 3, 2019
	U.S. Rep. District 5	Ralph Norman	Republican	June 26, 2017
	U.S. Rep. District 6	Jim Clyburn	Democratic	January 3, 1993
	U.S. Rep. District 7	Tom Rice	Republican	January 3, 2013

A district map is found here.

Further information: Political party strength in South Carolina

The state does not allow casino gambling, but it authorized the operation of video poker machines throughout the state. This yielded revenue of approximately $2 billion per year deposited into the state's coffers. But, in 2000 the legislature banned video poker, requiring machines to be shut off and removed from the state by July 8.[9][10]