United States House of Representatives elections in South Carolina, 2018
- General election: Nov. 6
- Voter registration deadline: Oct. 17
- Early voting: N/A
- Absentee voting deadline: Nov. 6
- Online registration: Yes
- Same-day registration: No
- Voter ID: Photo ID required
- Poll times: 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m.
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June 12, 2018 |
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The 2018 U.S. House of Representatives elections in South Carolina took place on November 6, 2018. Voters elected seven candidates to serve in the U.S. House, one from each of the state's seven congressional districts.
Partisan breakdown
Heading into the November 6 election, the Republican Party held six of the seven congressional seats from South Carolina.
| Members of the U.S. House from South Carolina -- Partisan Breakdown | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Party | As of November 2018 | After the 2018 Election | |
| Democratic Party | 1 | 2 | |
| Republican Party | 6 | 5 | |
| Total | 7 | 7 | |
Incumbents
Heading into the 2018 election, the incumbents for the seven congressional districts were:
| Name | Party | District |
|---|---|---|
| Mark Sanford |  Republican |
1 |
| Joe Wilson | Republican |
2 |
| Jeff Duncan | Republican |
3 |
| Trey Gowdy | Republican |
4 |
| Ralph Norman | Republican |
5 |
| James Clyburn |  Democratic |
6 |
| Tom Rice | Republican |
7 |
2016 Pivot Counties
South Carolina features five congressional districts that, based on boundaries adopted after the 2010 census, intersected with one or more Pivot Counties. These 206 Pivot Counties voted for Donald Trump (R) in 2016 after voting for Barack Obama (D) in 2008 and 2012.
The 206 Pivot Counties are located in 34 states. Iowa, with 31, had the most such counties. Heading into the 2018 elections, the partisan makeup of the 108 congressional districts intersecting with Pivot Counties was more Republican than the partisan breakdown of the U.S. House. Of the 108 congressional districts that had at least one Pivot County, 63 percent were held by a Republican incumbent, while 55.4 percent of U.S. House seats were won by a Republican in the 2016 elections.[1]
Candidates
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District 1
General election
General election candidates
- Joe Cunningham (Democratic Party) ✔
- Katie Arrington (Republican Party)
Primary candidates
Democratic primary candidates
Republican primary candidates
- Mark Sanford (Incumbent)
- Katie Arrington ✔
- Dimitri Cherny
District 2
General election
General election candidates
- Joe Wilson (Incumbent) (Republican Party) ✔
- Sean Carrigan (Democratic Party)
- Sonny Narang (American Party)
= candidate completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey
Primary runoff candidates
Democratic primary runoff candidates
Primary candidates
Democratic primary candidates
Republican primary candidates
- Joe Wilson (Incumbent) ✔
American
District 3
General election
General election candidates
- Jeff Duncan (Incumbent) (Republican Party) ✔
- Mary Geren (Democratic Party)
- Dave Moore (American Party)
- Write-in candidates
Primary candidates
Democratic primary candidates
Republican primary candidates
- Jeff Duncan (Incumbent) ✔
American
District 4
General election
General election candidates
- Brandon Brown (Democratic Party)
- William Timmons (Republican Party) ✔
- Guy Furay (American Party)
Primary runoff candidates
Democratic primary runoff candidates
Republican primary runoff candidates
Primary candidates
Democratic primary candidates
Did not make the ballot:
= candidate completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey
Republican primary candidates
- Dan Albert
- Barry Bell
- Lee Bright ✔
- Stephen Brown
- Mark Burns
- James Epley
- Dan Hamilton
- Josh Kimbrell
- John Marshall Mosser
- Shannon Pierce
- Justin David Sanders
- Claude Schmid
- William Timmons ✔
Did not make the ballot:
American
District 5
General election
General election candidates
- Ralph Norman (Incumbent) (Republican Party) ✔
- Archie Parnell (Democratic Party)
- Michael Chandler (Constitution Party)
Primary candidates
Democratic primary candidates
Republican primary candidates
- Ralph Norman (Incumbent) ✔
Constitution Party
District 6
General election
General election candidates
- James Clyburn (Incumbent) (Democratic Party) ✔
- Gerhard Gressmann (Republican Party)
- Bryan Pugh (Green Party)
Primary candidates
Democratic primary candidates
- James Clyburn (Incumbent) ✔
Republican primary candidates
Green Party
District 7
General election
General election candidates
- Tom Rice (Incumbent) (Republican Party) ✔
- Robert Williams (Democratic Party)
Did not make the ballot:
- Dick Withington (Libertarian Party)
Primary runoff candidates
Democratic primary runoff candidates
Primary candidates
Democratic primary candidates
Republican primary candidates
- Tom Rice (Incumbent) ✔
- Larry Guy Hammond
Did not make the ballot:
Wave election analysis
- See also: Wave elections (1918-2016)
The term wave election is frequently used to describe an election cycle in which one party makes significant electoral gains. How many seats would Republicans have had to lose for the 2018 midterm election to be considered a wave election?
Ballotpedia examined the results of the 50 election cycles that occurred between 1918 and 2016—spanning from President Woodrow Wilson's (D) second midterm in 1918 to Donald Trump's (R) first presidential election in 2016. We define wave elections as the 20 percent of elections in that period resulting in the greatest seat swings against the president's party.
Applying this definition to U.S. House elections, we found that Republicans needed to lose 48 seats for 2018 to qualify as a wave election.
The chart below shows the number of seats the president's party lost in the 11 U.S. House waves from 1918 to 2016. Click here to read the full report.
| U.S. House wave elections | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | President | Party | Election type | House seats change | House majority[3] | |
| 1932 | Hoover | R | Presidential | -97 | D | |
| 1922 | Harding | R | First midterm | -76 | R | |
| 1938 | Roosevelt | D | Second midterm | -70 | D | |
| 2010 | Obama | D | First midterm | -63 | R (flipped) | |
| 1920 | Wilson | D | Presidential | -59 | R | |
| 1946 | Truman | D | First midterm | -54 | R (flipped) | |
| 1994 | Clinton | D | First midterm | -54 | R (flipped) | |
| 1930 | Hoover | R | First midterm | -53 | D (flipped) | |
| 1942 | Roosevelt | D | Third midterm | -50 | D | |
| 1966 | Johnson | D | First midterm[4] | -48 | D | |
| 1974 | Ford | R | Second midterm[5] | -48 | D | |
See also
- United States House of Representatives elections, 2018
- U.S. House battlegrounds, 2018
- U.S. House primaries, 2018
Footnotes
- ↑ The raw data for this study was provided by Dave Leip of Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 South Carolina Election Commission, "Candidate Tracking," accessed April 2, 2018
- ↑ Denotes the party that had more seats in the U.S. House following the election.
- ↑ Lyndon Johnson's (D) first term began in November 1963 after the death of President John F. Kennedy (D), who was first elected in 1960. Before Johnson had his first midterm in 1966, he was re-elected president in 1964.
- ↑ Gerald Ford's (R) first term began in August 1974 following the resignation of President Richard Nixon (R), who was first elected in 1968 and was re-elected in 1972. Because Ford only served for two full months before facing the electorate, this election is classified as Nixon's second midterm.
