>> Welcome to This Week in South Carolina.

I'm Gavin Jackson.

Election 2024 has come and gone, and former President Donald Trump has been elected the 47th President of the United States, defeating Vice President Kamala Harris in an extraordinary and divisive campaign to break down the state level ramifications.

I'm joined by South Carolina Public Radio's Maayan Schecter and communications consultant, Rob Godfrey.

But first, we have a recap of this week, starting with the presidential race.

Tuesday was a culmination of a year's long, bruising presidential campaign that at one point featured two South Carolinians and was complete with twists and turns up until the end, with America finding out early Wednesday morning that former President Trump, who refused to accept defeat four years ago, was convicted on several felony charges and survived two assassination attempts this year, managed an incredible political comeback to become the 47th President of the United States.

Trump addressed his supporters in Florida after flipping several key battleground states.

Trump> We made history for a reason tonight, and the reason is going to be just that, we overcame obstacles that nobody thought possible, and it is now clear that we've achieved the most incredible political thing... Look what happened.

Is this crazy?

(applause) But it's a political victory that our country has never seen before.

Nothing like this.

So I want to thank the American people for the extraordinary honor of being elected your... 47th President and your 45th President.

(applause) And every citizen, I will fight for you, for your family and your future.

Every single day I will be fighting for you.

And with every breath in my body.

I will not rest until we have delivered the strong, safe and prosperous America that our children deserve and that you deserve.

This will truly be the golden age of America.

That's what we have to know.

(applause) Gavin> Vice President Kamala Harris ran an unprecedented and breathless sprint of a campaign over the past 100 days, since President Joe Biden stepped down from the race in late July.

Yet she couldn't shake the vestiges of the administration when it came to the economy and immigration, voters' top issues in this race.

Despite attempts to bring in some disaffected Republican voters, Harris saw slippage in key minority groups and demographics according to exit polls.

>>I will never give up the fight for a future where Americans can pursue their dreams, ambitions and aspirations.

where the women of America have the freedom to make decisions about their own body and not have their government telling them what to do.

We will never give up the fight to protect our schools and our streets from gun violence.

(applause) And America, we will never give up the fight for our democracy, for the rule of law, for equal justice, and for the sacred idea that every one of us, no matter who we are or where we start out, has certain fundamental rights and freedoms that must be respected and upheld.

(applause) And we will continue to wage this fight in the voting booth, in the courts and in the public square.

And we will also wage it in quieter ways in how we live our lives, by treating one another with kindness and respect.

Gavin> Further down the ballot, we're all 134 House and 46 State Senate races.

However, more than half of those were unopposed on election day due to how the Republican majority House and Senate drew those 2022 maps.

And on Tuesday, the Senate flipped four seats to gain a super majority of Republicans like in the House.

State Republican Party Chairman Drew McKissick said the party didn't pick up all the state House seats it wanted, but it continued to grow, especially in the Pee Dee region, >> ...from the Lowcountry to the Pee Dee, to the Midlands to the upstate, South Carolina continues to realign its electoral politics with its traditional conservative philosophy by electing more and more Republicans, to office up and down the ballot in South Carolina.

We aggressively work not only to defend our incumbents, but also to expand the playing field, to use what we knew would be a wave of support for President Trump and pick up as many other seats at every level as we could all around the state.

The results speak for themselves.

We held our super majority in the state House and we added one seat to it.

We picked up an additional four seats in the state Senate, giving Republicans a Senate super majority for the first time in over 150 years, winning 34 out of 46 seats.

And as I mentioned earlier about, you know, South Carolina's electoral politics more aligning with its traditional conservative philosophy.

I mean, that especially in areas like that.

I think that's a perfect example of that.

In the last, you know, 3 or 4 election cycles, we've seen little inkblots begin to appear, if you will, in the Pee Dee that have expanded, you know.

Darlington County, is a perfect example.

We flipped a, clerk of court, rather a clerk of court switched parties.

We've had a coroner switch parties in Darlington within the last year.

And then last night, we win a sheriff's race.

We win a solicitor's race that has part of Darlington County.

And then, of course, the Senate race.

Again, I go back to the point where when, when you make those kind of changes happen and they're not sexy, it's not the kind of thing people focus, focus on, necessarily.

When you get those guys at the super local level, begin to switch parties or to run as Republicans.

You have that many more people who will vote a straight ticket and then it helps the rest of the ticket going up.

These are people who've been conservatives all their life.

It's just now getting to the point where they can win as a Republican in that area.

So they begin to align their party preferences with their philosophy.

Gavin> More than 2.5 million South Carolinians voted in this election, including 1.5 million who cast their ballots early or by absentee.

This fueled a more than 76.5% voter participation rate, the second highest since 2008.

The state's 18 point margin for Trump, the strongest for a Republican presidential candidate here, ever drove those down ballot races that the South Carolina Democratic Party didn't have the resources to combat.

According to state chairwoman Christale Spain, >> when it comes to the Senate, we knew that it was going to be a tall order to hang on to all the Senate seats that we needed to keep.

And that's why we invested unprecedented resources and fostered an unprecedented cooperative effort between us, the Democratic Party and the city caucuses and with our local party organizations.

And this collective effort is just a testament to the commitment that we all have to elect Democrats up and down the ballot.

You know, I think that, like I said, you know, Trump ended up having a pretty, pretty strong tail winds last night.

And like I said, we were, our races were targeted.

So we were talking to the voters in the districts.

We didn't have one big blanket message, especially in the Senate.

You know, those messages were really research driven.

So I, I really don't I can't say that, that was the case.

I really feel like a lot of our races couldn't hold on just because of the tremendous turnout on the Trump, with the Trump being at the top of the ticket.

Gavin> There were no surprises in the seven congressional district races.

Voters in the 3rd Congressional district easily elected the first new Republican representative since 2010, with Sheri Biggs replacing a retiring congressman, Jeff Duncan.

Biggs won a seven way June primary and a runoff by 1100 votes.

She cast her ballot early in Walhalla last week.

>> Well, I think we're very vulnerable, and I don't know that we have ever been in this predicament as seriously as it is right now with our border crisis and with the economy as I previously mentioned.

And I think there's a lot at stake here.

So we have to make changes.

And I'm very happy to see all the voters turn out.

And I think, on Tuesday, we'll, we'll see the change that people are demanding.

Gavin> Others in the congressional delegation held on to their seats as expected, maintaining the six Republicans and one Democrat that make up the delegation.

1st District Republican Congresswoman Nancy Mace, who survived a June primary, defeated Democratic challenger, Michael B Moore by 16 points in the most expensive state congressional race this cycle.

Winthrop Political Science Professor, Scott Huffmon said Tuesday night that while Mace has solidified a third term by a 16 point margin, thanks in part to the stronger Republican drawn district map upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in May, she still has an ideologically changing and growing district.

>> You know, when you are that outspoken, you make yourself a target for, you know, getting primaried by people who are unhappy with you.

She makes enemies just as easily as she makes friends.

She can be very controversial.

So you know how popular she is today.

That could fundamentally change by the time 2026 rolls around.

That's a safe Republican district that's going to remain a safe Republican district.

But Nancy Mace, you know, and she wants to be a loose cannon, and she can be a loose cannon.

You know, whether or not she maintains her strong base, that remains to be seen.

But right now, she's got it.

You know, as Kirk said she's going to get double digits, low double digit but double digit win.

Whether or not she can hang on to that or talk herself out- Gavin> Got you., Scott> You know, any leadership position or anything in the in the House, we'll see.

Joining me now to discuss the election results is South Carolina Public Radio reporter, Maayan Schechter and communications consultant Rob Godfrey.

Y'all welcome.

Election 2024 is over.

I think.

(nervous laugh) It is officially, Maayan> Yeah.

Gavin> But Maayan, I want to talk to you about the Statehouse.

We'll talk presidential ramifications in a moment.

But I want to talk about how things shook out, down the ballot when we're talking about the Statehouse races.

We heard from S.C. GOP Chairman Drew McKissick in my segment a minute ago.

But I want to get some more granular details about some of those, those races, those four Senate seats that were flipped by Republicans.

Tell us about those and where they were and basically how close they were.

Maayan> Yeah.

I don't think anybody can argue that Republicans had a really good night, not just obviously in DC, but down ballot, especially here in the South Carolina Statehouse.

And like you mentioned, Republicans were able to flip four seats in the state Senate held by Democratic incumbents, including three who had been there for quite a long time.

You have state Senator Mike Fanning, and that's a race that we'll talk about that is incredibly close.

Vernon Stevens in the Orangeburg area that was redistricted, Gerald Malloy, you know, coming from a county that is shifted toward, toward Trump and, and then also, Kevin Johnson, coming from Clarendon County, a county that basically has has flipped red.

So those were the four seats that they lost in the state Senate.

The Democrats did lose a seat in the House.

And we can talk about that in a minute, that, that membership in terms of Republican, Democratic.

It's still pretty balanced.

But in the state Senate, with those four flips, Republicans will now have a super majority, which gives them the ability to, you know, sit down filibusters, carry out their priorities.

Both of you both know, obviously, that Republicans, despite the lack of a super majority in the past, several sessions, were still able to carry out the priorities that they wanted.

But those are big pickups for the Republicans, and those shifts really happen.

You have a combination of these rural areas are just trending more red.

These are areas that voted for former President Donald Trump in 2020.

And in 2024, redistricting played a huge role, but so did, frankly, campaigning.

You had, incumbents who had been there for a while, were working off of a lot of name I.D., even maybe some other down ballot help, and it just didn't work out for them in the end.

Gavin> Yeah, especially on that straight ticket voting there, too.

Rob> I agree with, I agree with a lot of what Maayan said.

You know, I think that what we'll look back on is as this cycle, and this year is kind of the final farewell, with the exception of a bright spot in, in Senator elect Russell Ott.

We'll look back on this is kind of a final farewell of the rural Democrat in South Carolina, a trend that's been happening since.

Really, Governor McMaster was the chairman of the South Carolina Republican Party.

It continued under the leadership of Katon Dawson when he was chairman of the Republican Party.

And you see this, and you've seen it, more and more each election cycle.

And a lot of times with senators, it's coincided with the, with the fact that straight ticket voting, at the top of the ticket for the president, has, has gone a long ways to help them.

This year, Donald Trump ran up a margin that I don't think anybody expected in this state.

And I think that some of those, Democratic senators who were incumbents, were the victim of that, politically speaking.

And so, you know, I don't know that there will be many, rural Democrats that though, that we'll see, elected in this state going forward.

Maayan> And in another race, in addition to Russell Ott is obviously the one to replace outgoing Senator Thomas McElveen.

Democrat Jeffrey Graham won that race.

And so, yes, those are those shining spots for Democrats especially, like you mentioned, and those rural areas.

Gavin> Yeah.

So it could have been worse for Democrats that night.

Maayan> Absolutely.

>> Yeah.

So, so far they're hanging on to those races.

And then even with Heather Bauer in the House and Spencer Wetmore in the House, too, those were some close races that Democrats held on to.

Maayan> Yeah, I think the Republican Party thought that they were going to be able to flip more seats in the House.

Back in 2020, they flipped two seats, which, ironically, those seats no longer exist because of redistricting.

And those lawmakers are no longer in the House.

In 2022, Republicans flipped even more seats in the midterms.

And so they really did think that with the flips they had, especially in the Senate, that they would see that in the House and they just didn't.

They did pick up Joe Jefferson's seat.

That's kind of that Dorchester, Berkeley area.

But yes, you mentioned Heather Bauer.

She represents one of the, "swing-iest" if you will, parts of Richland County.

I mean, that was that race was pretty much deadlocked.

And she only won in 2022 by just a few votes over 200.

She more than tripled that.

She, she beat former representative, Kirkman Finlay by over a thousand votes.

So yes, I would say that Democrats feel especially good about that race.

Also Representative Spencer Wetmore in the Charleston area, that was another district that Republicans in the last few weeks had thought that maybe they could also pick up.

And while they were able to keep their incumbents in Charleston, which is still a little bit, I think of a surprise for a lot of Democrats.

Democrats were able to keep Spencer Wetmore in that place.

Rob> Yeah, to mention that, that Heather Bauer race, I think that she is, she's an example of an incumbent who didn't take anything for granted.

And that's going to be increasingly important, for, for, you know, Democratic candidates to keep in mind, you know, she was always out there holding town hall.

She was talking to constituents all the time.

She's very well known and, and very high profile in the community.

And she got involved in some local issues that I think people cared about a lot.

And I think that, you know, in some of these Senate seats that, that we didn't see that and I think that again, those, those senators, probably lost their races due to some straight ticket, straight ticket voting, but also, you know, when you, when you, when we're talking about, you know, these Geo-TV efforts, you talk about a lot of door knocking, you talk about a lot of things that I think are becoming more and more antiquated.

Door knocking, maybe the new rotary dial phone, of, of the, of the, 21st century.

And we're underestimating, even in rural areas, the impact that the changing media ecosystem and communications ecosystem, where people are getting so much of their information from their phones, from places like TikTok, from places like, Instagram Reels and stuff like that.

So a lot of that national messaging that got people super, super, engaged in the presidential election, I think, also got people engaged in the election in places like Clarendon County, where Donald Trump ended up running up a much higher margin, Gavin> Yeah.

Rob> than he ever had before.

It seems like we're talking about, you know, the quality of a candidate too, versus some of these incumbents who maybe feel a bit more comfortable.

Then all of a sudden things are changing and they have to get out there and really, really kind of, hit the bushes and try and get people.

Then they realize the bushes are full of the opposite party, at the same time.

Rob> I think that, I think that's right.

I think that, you know, I don't, you know, while I, I don't want to totally downplay the fact that messaging matters, that candidates matter.

You know, the fact is, is that Democrats, in some ways, I think underestimated in these rural areas, the small "c" conservative cultural issues that voters care about.

And also they underestimated perhaps some of the quality of life issues that, that are being talked about all around the country.

People want to be able to put, food on their tables.

People want to be able to do things, you know, as simple as when they get off work, go and buy a 6 pack of beer or a case of beer and not have to pay, you know, twice as much as they did, you know, 4 or 8 years ago for it.

Gavin> What about buying liquor on Sundays?

We'll see about that this session.

Rob> That's right.

Gavin> Maayan, I want to ask you about when we're talking about priorities, we're talking about legislation, What are we hearing now from the leaders in both the House and the Senate, now that the Senate's going to have, you know, if everything holds, 34 Republicans and then over in the House, 88 Republicans.

What are we hearing in terms of priorities and what they're going to do with those super majorities now?

Maayan> So both Republicans in the House, in the Senate are still trying to hash out and figure out what exactly they want to do, especially with this brand new membership.

There are a lot of new freshmen that they probably also need to figure out how they're going to include them in this process.

But I think the number one issue that we're going to hear a lot about, and we already have, is what's known as the educational school or educational accountability scholarships.

You know, private school vouchers are also called what the state Supreme Court overturned.

The legislature was legislative leaders were not too pleased with that.

And they've already committed to going back and looking to see how they can perhaps fix the bill.

You know, fix what they passed last time so that in this new state, Supreme Court will accept it, similar to what they did with the abortion ban.

So I think that's number one.

The governor, of course, will unveil his legislative priorities in January.

And sometimes that helps kind of dictate what we will see happening in the House, in the Senate, especially because especially in the House, because the Senate, excuse me, the governor and the House typically have gotten along pretty well.

Gavin> And Rob you've seen that too.

You worked with, former Governor Nikki Haley.

Y'all had a little bit more of a, you know, a difficult relationship with the legislature.

That's changed since Governor McMaster has taken over.

How do you see the governor, especially in his now last two years before we start really ramping up for the 2026 gubernatorial race?

How do you see McMaster working with the legislature?

More now with this super majority in place?

Rob> Certainly.

Well, as somebody who's worked for both, Governor Haley and Governor McMaster on two of his campaigns, you know, I think that there's obviously a, you know, a a much better working relationship on the front end, for Governor McMaster.

And he laid out yesterday some of the priorities in his, post-election news conference that he's going to be, continuing to work together with the General Assembly on.

And those are priorities that he'll not only benefit from an increased Republican majority, you know, working on, but those are priorities that he sees many of as bipartisan, for example, school safety, putting school resource officers in every school, you know, funding for mental health, those types of priorities.

He's going to count on Republicans and Democrats to work on those things.

And I think that's a great thing in South Carolina and something that's unique for our state.

Maayan> And just to add on to that, as both of you know, so much policy that gets passed is not in the form of individual bills.

It's in the budget.

And that is an obviously an area where we've seen the governor and the House where the budget starts really work together, an area where, of course, Democrats and Republicans come together and work on that.

But I do I do think, again, you know, regardless of that, and regardless of the vouchers, we will probably see bills pop up, thousands of bills get re-filed every year.

I'm sure we will see things that probably align more with this change in a more conservative legislator, legislature.

Rob> Fair question, Gavin> But then Maayan, when we talk about, you know, this, this everything's sounding so good and perfect for the Republicans, they're still you know, they still have to work together.

when we're talking about super majorities.

They don't all agree on the same thing at the same time, especially where in the House where there are different factions at play too.

Maybe can you forecast what we might see happen there?

Or, you know, we're talk about the House Freedom Caucus, which is, very conservative, far right, faction.

They're about, I guess maybe a dozen or so members to claim membership in that.

When do you see that going or what have you heard from lawmakers when it comes to trying to work together to get things through the Statehouse?

Maayan> Well, we've long heard Republican leaders in both chambers say they do not want to become Congress, especially this last iteration of Congress, where it felt like nothing could get done in the US House of Representatives.

So far, I don't think we've necessarily seen some of that lock jamming of, of legislation getting stopped.

The House Freedom Caucus, especially the new iteration of it, does feel very emboldened after these primary midterms or, excuse me, primary elections in June.

They were able to flip a couple of seats of longtime Republican incumbents who, were great allies of the speaker and so they do feel emboldened that this is a legislative session, that they'll be able to move some of the issues that they care about.

And, you know, to their credit, they did help sort of push some issues to the forefront in the legislative session, although I don't know if Republican leaders would necessarily agree with that.

Gavin> Different tactics.

Maayan> Right.

I do think we're going to continue to see that style of infighting in the House.

I don't think that is going to completely go away.

And, you know, there are some other things that are going on in the background that could change that or help, hurt that.

Who knows?

But I think, you know, especially when you talk to a lot of the conservative legislators in the House, the emphasis has always been on the Senate, right!

Because the House passes a lot of bills in a legislative session, and then the Senate typically slows it down.

They're the deliberative body, and that's what they like to try to do.

Gavin> The...track.

Maayan> And sometimes that's not a bad thing.

But a lot of House conservatives feel like finally, maybe with these changes in the Senate membership, they can see some of the bills that they've been trying to push, you know, faster, actually move through.

So we'll see.

I mean, there is a definitely there is a I think a much more conservative tilt that is occurring in the South Carolina Senate.

We'll see if they go through the same kind of headaches that leadership in the House has gone through.

Gavin> And then Rob, for a few minutes of just talking about looking forward to 2026.

I know we're just wrapping up 2024.

No one wants to talk about that.

But of course, now that's the next big race we're talking about the governor's race will be on the ticket.

Senator Lindsey Graham's seat will be up for election again.

How do you see maybe the posturing start next year?

Where do we go when everyone starts, you know, 2025, we know it's on the horizon.

Is it?

I mean, you're talking about the Democrats really not having much left in their bank.

I mean, we've looked at the 2020 race with Jamie Harrison versus Lindsey Graham, and that was the most expensive Senate race at the time.

And they still couldn't get below ten points.

So how did the Democrats approach, you know, the next big iteration.

Rob> Yeah of course, the Governor's race in 2022.

Gavin> Yeah.

Rob>...was, was even far worse for, for Democrats- Gavin> -for Joe Cunningham.

Yeah.

But, but you know, I think what we'll start to see is the governor's race take shape, you know, around mid-year, you know, it's, completely reasonable to let the legislature, have their organizational session and to do the business that, that these new, super these new super majorities are, like, or one new super majority is elected to do.

And I think people are going to be most interested to see, you know, what that looks like.

But, you will start to see, you will start to see a governor's race take shape.

It's going to be an extraordinarily historic one.

It's going to be the first open one since 2010.

There are statewide elected officials who have their eyes on, running to succeed Governor McMaster, who, you know, is on track to be the longest serving governor in the history of our state.

And, and I think we know who those statewide officials are so far.

You know, we have, the sitting attorney general, Alan Wilson, who is said to be, looking at the race, I don't think he's, you know, come close to making a decision on that yet.

And the same goes for the lieutenant governor, Pam Evette, who's also been looking, you know, at what her next move would be.

And I don't think she's, you know, close to making a decision.

But what I'm looking for more than, you know, what those two candidates are going to do is what we might see a legislator or 2 or 3 do.

Gavin> Yes.

>> Or what... a member, or what a member of the congressional delegation is going to do, because we have certainly ambitious members of our, of our House delegation.

You know, Nancy Mace comes to mind, you know, what she wants to do, where she wants to go.

And we have someone, you know, we have candidates who've run for other offices you know, other federal offices, and we have members of the general assembly.

I was gonna ask for predictions, but we just got a couple right there from Rob Godfrey, communications consultant and South Carolina Public Radio's Maayan Schechter.

Thank you both for being here with us.

I'm Gavin Jackson for South Carolina ETV.

Be well, South Carolina.