United States presidential elections in South Carolina
Following is a table of United States presidential elections in South Carolina, ordered by year. Since its admission to statehood in 1788, South Carolina has participated in every U.S. presidential election except the election of 1864 during the American Civil War, when the state had seceded to join the Confederacy.
No. of elections | 57 |
---|---|
Voted Democratic | 30 |
Voted Republican | 15 |
Voted Whig | 2 |
Voted Democratic-Republican | 7 |
Voted other | 4[lower-alpha 1] |
Voted for winning candidate | 33 |
Voted for losing candidate | 24 |
Winners of the state are in bold.
Elections from 1864 to present
Election of 1860
The election of 1860 was a complex realigning election in which the breakdown of the previous two-party alignment culminated in four parties each competing for influence in different parts of the country. The result of the election, with the victory of an ardent opponent of slavery, spurred the secession of eleven states and brought about the American Civil War.
Year | Winner (nationally) | Votes | Loser (nationally) | Votes | Loser (nationally) | Votes | Loser (nationally) | Votes | Electoral Votes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1860 | Abraham Lincoln | no popular vote | Stephen A. Douglas | no popular vote | John C. Breckinridge | no popular vote | John Bell | no popular vote | 8 |
Vote allocated by legislature.
Elections from 1788-89 to 1856
In all elections from 1792 to 1860, South Carolina did not conduct a popular vote. Each Elector was appointed by the state legislature.
The election of 1824 was a complex realigning election following the collapse of the prevailing Democratic-Republican Party, resulting in four different candidates each claiming to carry the banner of the party, and competing for influence in different parts of the country. The election was the only one in history to be decided by the House of Representatives under the provisions of the Twelfth Amendment to the United States Constitution after no candidate secured a majority of the electoral vote. It was also the only presidential election in which the candidate who received a plurality of electoral votes (Andrew Jackson) did not become President, a source of great bitterness for Jackson and his supporters, who proclaimed the election of Adams a corrupt bargain.
Notes
- Strom Thurmond, 1948; John Floyd, 1832; George Washington, 1788-89, 1792.
- For purposes of these lists, other national candidates are defined as those who won at least one electoral vote, or won at least ten percent of the vote in multiple states.
- Won the electoral college while losing the popular vote
- Was allied with a slate of unpledged electors in Louisiana, Mississippi and South Carolina
- Three other candidates ran and received electoral votes nationally as part of the unsuccessful Whig strategy to defeat Martin Van Buren by running four candidates with local appeal in different regions of the country. The others were William Henry Harrison, Hugh Lawson White, and Daniel Webster. However, there was no popular vote in South Carolina, and this was the only state where Mangum was put forth as a candidate.