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2025 South Carolina legislative session
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| 2025 South Carolina legislative session |
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| General information |
| Scheduled session start: January 14, 2025 Scheduled session end: May 28, 2025 |
| Leadership |
| Senate President Thomas Alexander (R) House Speaker |
| Elections |
| Next Election: November 3, 2026 Last Election: November 5, 2024 |
| Previous legislative sessions |
| 2024 • 2023 • 2022 • 2021 • 2020 • 2019 • 2018 |
| Other 2025 legislative sessions |
In 2025, the South Carolina State Legislature was scheduled to convene on January 14 and adjourn on May 28.
The legislators serving in this session took office following the 2024 elections. Republicans won a 34-12 majority in the Senate and a 88-36 majority in the House. The party also controlled the governorship, creating a Republican state government trifecta. At the start of the 2025 session, South Carolina was one of 20 state legislatures where Republicans had a veto-proof supermajority in both chambers.
Leadership in 2025
South Carolina State Senate
- Senate president: Thomas Alexander (R)
- Majority leader: Shane Massey (R)
- Minority leader: Brad Hutto (D)
South Carolina House of Representatives
- Speaker of the House: G. Murrell Smith Jr. (R)
- Majority leader: Davey Hiott (R)
- Minority leader: James Rutherford (D)
Partisan control in 2025
- See also: State government trifectas
South Carolina was one of 23 Republican state government trifectas at the start of 2025 legislative sessions. A state government trifecta occurs when one political party holds the governor's office, a majority in the state Senate, and a majority in the state House. For more information about state government trifectas, click here.
South Carolina was also one of X state legislatures where neither party had a veto-proof supermajority in both chambers. Veto overrides occur when a legislature votes to reverse a veto issued by an executive such as a governor or the president. If one party has a majority in a state legislature that is large enough to override a gubernatorial veto without any votes from members of the minority party, it is called a veto-proof majority or, sometimes, a supermajority. To read more about veto-proof supermajorities in state legislatures, click here.
The following tables show the partisan breakdown of the South Carolina State Legislature in the 2025 legislative session.
South Carolina State Senate
| Party | As of January 2025 | |
|---|---|---|
| Democratic Party | 12 | |
| Republican Party | 34 | |
| Total | 46 | |
South Carolina House of Representatives
| Party | As of January 2025 | |
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| Democratic Party | 36 | |
| Republican Party | 88 | |
| Total | 124 | |
Regular session
The list below shows up to 25 pieces of legislation in the 2025 legislative session that most recently passed both chambers of the legislature, were signed by the governor, or were approved by the legislature in a veto override. If no bills are displayed below, no legislation has met these criteria yet in 2025. This information is provided by BillTrack50.
Legislation trackers
- See also: Legislation Trackers
Ballotpedia’s legislation trackers are your go-to resource for staying on top of key legislative topics. We capture any bill introduced on the topic across all of the 50 state legislatures, and we track the movement of the bill every step of the way. We provide real-time updates and translate legislative legalese into easily understandable language. As of the 2025 session, Ballotpedia provided tracking on the following topics. Click on the links below to view related bills from the 2025 session:
Standing legislative committees
A standing committee of a state legislature is a committee that exists on a more-or-less permanent basis, from legislative session to session, that considers and refines legislative bills that fall under the committee's subject matter.
At the beginning of the 2025 legislative session, there were 27 standing committees in South Carolina's state government, including one joint legislative committee, 14 state Senate committees, and 12 state House committees.
Joint legislative committees
Senate committees
- Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee
- Banking and Insurance Committee
- Corrections and Penology Committee
- Education Committee
- Family and Veterans' Services Committee
- Finance Committee
- Fish, Game, and Forestry Committee
- Labor, Commerce, and Industry Committee
- Medical Affairs Committee
- Senate Ethics Committee
- Senate Judiciary Committee
- Senate Legislative Oversight Committee
- Senate Rules Committee
- Transportation Committee
House committees
- Agriculture, Natural Resources and Environmental Affairs Committee
- Education and Public Works Committee
- House Ethics Committee
- House Judiciary Committee
- House Legislative Oversight Committee
- House Rules Committee
- Invitations and Memorial Resolutions Committee
- Labor, Commerce and Industry Committee
- Medical, Military, Public and Municipal Affairs Committee
- Operations and Management Committee
- Regulations and Administrative Procedures Committee
- Ways and Means Committee
Legislatively referred constitutional amendments
In every state but Delaware, voter approval is required to enact a constitutional amendment. In each state, the legislature has a process for referring constitutional amendments before voters. In 18 states, initiated constitutional amendments can be put on the ballot through a signature petition drive. There are also many other types of statewide measures.
The methods by which the South Carolina Constitution can be amended:
The South Carolina Constitution provides two mechanisms for amending the state's constitution— a legislative process and a state constitutional convention. South Carolina requires a simple majority vote (50% plus 1) for voters to approve constitutional amendments.
Legislature
A two-thirds (66.67%) vote is required during one legislative session for the South Carolina State Legislature to place a constitutional amendment on the ballot. That amounts to a minimum of 82 votes in the South Carolina House of Representatives and 30 votes in the South Carolina State Senate, assuming no vacancies. Amendments do not require the governor's signature to be referred to the ballot.
In South Carolina, the Legislature needs to approve a constitutional amendment for a second time after voters approve the amendment. This second vote requires a simple majority in the House and Senate.
Convention
According to Section 3 of Article XVI of the South Carolina Constitution, a constitutional convention can be held if two-thirds of the members of both houses of the South Carolina State Legislature vote to put the question on the ballot.
Historical partisan control
The table below depicts the historical trifecta status of South Carolina.
South Carolina Party Control: 1992-2025
No Democratic trifectas • Twenty-three years of Republican trifectas
Scroll left and right on the table below to view more years.
| Year | 92 | 93 | 94 | 95 | 96 | 97 | 98 | 99 | 00 | 01 | 02 | 03 | 04 | 05 | 06 | 07 | 08 | 09 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Governor | R | R | R | R | R | R | R | D | D | D | D | R | R | R | R | R | R | R | R | R | R | R | R | R | R | R | R | R | R | R | R | R | R | R |
| Senate | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | R | R | R | R | R | R | R | R | R | R | R | R | R | R | R | R | R | R | R | R | R | R | R | R | R |
| House | D | D | D | R | R | R | R | R | R | R | R | R | R | R | R | R | R | R | R | R | R | R | R | R | R | R | R | R | R | R | R | R | R | R |
Historical Senate control
Republicans won control of the South Carolina State Senate in 2000. In 2024, they won a 34-12 majority.
The table below shows the partisan history of the South Carolina Senate following every general election from 1992 to 2024. All data from 2006 or earlier comes from Michael Dubin's Party Affiliations in the State Legislatures (McFarland Press, 2007). Data after 2006 was compiled by Ballotpedia staff.
South Carolina State Senate election results: 1992-2024
| Party | '92 | '96 | '00 | '04 | '08 | '12 | '16 | '20 | '24 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Democrats | 30 | 26 | 22 | 19 | 19 | 18 | 18 | 16 | 12 |
| Republicans | 16 | 20 | 24 | 27 | 27 | 28 | 28 | 30 | 34 |
Historical House control
Republicans won control of the South Carolina House of Representatives in 1994. In 2024, they won an 88-35 majority with one vacancy.
The table below shows the partisan history of the South Carolina House following every general election from 1992 to 2024. All data from 2006 or earlier comes from Michael Dubin's Party Affiliations in the State Legislatures (McFarland Press, 2007). Data after 2006 was compiled by Ballotpedia staff.
South Carolina House of Representatives election results: 1992-2024
| Year | '92 | '94 | '96 | '98 | '00 | '02 | '04 | '06 | '08 | '10 | '12 | '14 | '16 | '18 | '20 | '22 | '24 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Democrats | 73 | 58 | 53 | 59 | 54 | 51 | 50 | 51 | 53 | 48 | 46 | 47 | 44 | 44 | 43 | 36 | 35 |
| Republicans | 50 | 62 | 70 | 64 | 70 | 73 | 74 | 73 | 71 | 75 | 78 | 77 | 80 | 80 | 81 | 88 | 88 |
Analysis
Adopted legislation, 2011-2024
In 2024, Ballotpedia released analysis of bills enacted in each state in the preceding decade. The charts and table below detail legislation passed each year by party sponsorship.
See also
| Elections | South Carolina State Government | State Legislatures | State Politics |
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External links
Footnotes
