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 County results Graham: 50–60% 60–70% 70–80% Sanders: 40–50% 50–60% 60–70% 70–80% | |||||||||||||||||
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The2002 United States Senate election in South Carolina was held on November 5, 2002. Longtime Republican incumbentStrom Thurmond decided to retire at the age of 100, becoming the firstcentenarian to ever serve in Congress; he later died in June 2003. Thurmond's record as the longest-serving Senator in U.S. history was later surpassed byWest Virginia'sRobert Byrd.
RepresentativeLindsey Graham won the open seat, becoming the first non-incumbent Republican Senator from South Carolina since Reconstruction in 1872. This was the first open Senate election in South Carolina since1956.
Alex Sanders, the former president of theCollege of Charleston, faced no opposition in the Democratic primary and thereby avoided aprimary election.
RepresentativeLindsey Graham had no challenge for the Republican nomination and thus avoided aprimary election.[1] This was due in large part because theSouth Carolina Republicans were preoccupied with thegubernatorial race,[2] and also because potential rivals were deterred by the huge financial war chest Graham had amassed early in the campaign.[3]
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The election campaign between Graham and Sanders pitted ideology against personality. Graham spread his message to the voters that he had a consistent conservative voting record and that his votes in Congress closely matched that of outgoing SenatorStrom Thurmond. Sanders claimed that he was best to represent South Carolina in the Senate because he held membership in both theNAACP, theSons of Confederate Veterans, theNRA, and because he said that his positions more closely matched the citizens of the state. He said that he was against the death penalty for religious reasons, supported abortion rights, and was for greater government involvement in education. Graham attacked Sanders for these positions consistently throughout the campaign, but Sanders hit back at Graham for wanting to privatizesocial security.
Graham scored an impressive victory in the general election and the margin of victory proved that Democrats had little chance of winning an election in the state for a federal position. He achieved his victory because he rolled up strong marginsthe Upstate and was able to also achieve a majority in theLowcountry, an area which Sanders had been expected to do well since he hailed fromCharleston. However, strong support in the Lowcountry for Republican gubernatorial candidateMark Sanford doomed Sanders chances of running up a margin in the coastal counties.
| Source | Ranking | As of |
|---|---|---|
| Sabato's Crystal Ball[4] | Lean R | November 4, 2002 |
| Source | Date | Graham (R) | Sanders (D) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Zogby International | October 11, 2002[1] | 47% | 35% |
| Mason-Dixon Political/Media Research | October 13, 2002[2] | 51% | 34% |
| SurveyUSA | October 20, 2002[3] | 53% | 44% |
| SurveyUSA | October 27, 2002[4] | 49% | 48% |
| Mason-Dixon Political/Media Research | October 29, 2002[5][permanent dead link] | 53% | 36% |
| SurveyUSA | November 4, 2002[6] | 49% | 48% |
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Republican | Lindsey Graham | 600,010 | 54.40% | +1.02% | |
| Democratic | Alex Sanders | 487,359 | 44.19% | +0.20% | |
| Constitution | Ted Adams | 8,228 | 0.75% | N/A | |
| Libertarian | Victor Kocher | 6,684 | 0.61% | −0.51% | |
| Write-in | 667 | 0.06% | N/A | ||
| Total votes | 1,102,948 | 100.00% | |||
| Majority | 112,651 | 10.21% | +0.82% | ||
| Turnout | 1,102,948 | 53.9% | −10.1% | ||
| Republicanhold | |||||
General
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