South Carolina's 1st congressional district is a coastal congressional district inSouth Carolina, represented byRepublicanNancy Mace since January 3, 2021. She succeededDemocratJoe Cunningham, having defeated him in the2020 election. Cunningham was the first Democrat to represent the district since the 1980s.
The district has historically been based inCharleston. It has includedMyrtle Beach, which became a major tourist destination in the late 20th century, as well as other coastal areas that have attracted retirees and seasonal visitors. From 1993 to 2013, the district boundaries extended fromSeabrook Island in the south to theNorth Carolina border and included parts ofCharleston,Dorchester,Berkeley andGeorgetown counties and all ofHorry County to the North Carolina line.
In 2010, the state received another seat in Congressional apportionment due to an increase in population. The state's districts had to be redrawn, which was completed in 2013. In the final plan, the 1st congressional district was redrawn to reach fromHilton Head Island to mid-coast South Carolina, ending at theSantee River and comprising parts of Charleston, Berkeley, Dorchester andBeaufort counties. This configuration is similar to the one it had for most of the 20th century. Horry County was included in the new7th congressional district.
On January 6, 2023, the district was declared unconstitutional by theU.S. District Court for the District of South Carolina on account ofracial gerrymandering and would have to be redrawn in April of that year.[3] TheSupreme Court justices addedAlexander v. South Carolina State Conference of the NAACP to their merits calendar for the 2023–24 term. At least fifteen amicus briefs were filed by various organizations and individuals with standing before the court.[4] The case was argued on October 11, 2023.[5][6] On March 28, 2024, the same district court that ruled the congressional district was unconstitutional, allowed for its use in the2024 elections. It concluded that it would be impractical to create a new district map at the current time, mainly due to the upcoming military and overseas ballot mailing deadline of April 27 and statewide primaries on June 11. However, it still found the district to be in violation of the14th amendment and believed future litigation is possible after the 2024 elections.[7][8]
On May 23, 2024, the Supreme Court—in a 6–3 decision—ruled the district was constitutional, reversing the District of South Carolina's original ruling and officially allowing the state's current congressional map to be used for and past the 2024 elections.[9][10][11] It also remanded the case back to the district court to rehear other claims made by the defendants.[12]
It is the wealthiest congressional district in the state ofSouth Carolina.[13]
Following the Civil War and granting of citizenship to former slaves, in 1870, Charleston's population was 53 percent black; and Charleston County had a 73 percent black majority.[14] The city's large population offree people of color had developed many leaders who advanced in the changing society. These population majorities protectedfreedmen against some of the election-related violence that occurred in other parts of the state in the 1870s as white Democrats worked to suppress black voting and regain political control of the state.[14] During Reconstruction, the mostly black Republicans from this district supported Republican candidates, including four terms forJoseph H. Rainey as US Representative to Congress, a record by an African-American legislator not surpassed until the 1950s.
After the Democrats regained control of the state in 1876, during an election season marked by violence and fraud, and Reconstruction ended in 1877, they passed laws establishing racial segregation and making voter registration and voting more difficult, such as the "eight-box law". African-AmericanGeorge W. Murray finally won in the disputed 1894 congressional election from this district; he challenged the Republican candidate's victory because of election fraud and was upheld by the House Committee on Elections. But passage of a new state constitution by Democrats in 1895 effectivelydisfranchised most African-American citizens in 1896. Their participation in the political system was ended for seven decades. The white Democrats established a one-party state and used various devices to maintain the exclusion of blacks until after passage of federal civil rights legislation in the mid-1960s.
Party realignments in the late 20th century resulted in many new black voters supporting the national Democratic Party. White conservatives in the South shifted and joined the Republican Party, in 1980 electing the first Republican congressman from the state to be elected in the 20th century. Since the buildup of the military in this region, especially theNavy, the area's white voters have supported conservative candidates.
Given the crippling of the Republican Party by the disfranchisement of blacks, a Republican was not elected to a full term in this district in the 20th century until 1980, whenTommy Hartnett was swept in byReagan's coattails. But, his election represented a different party and was the result of a major realignment of white conservative voters in the late 20th century to the Republican, rather than the Democratic Party. Starting with national candidates in the late 1960s and 1970s, white voters in South Carolina began to shift to the Republican Party.
As after every decennial census, the state legislature conducted redistricting after the 1990 census. The white Republican-controlled legislature shifted most of Charleston's African-American majority areas intoSouth Carolina's 6th congressional district, creating a majority-minority district. To make up for the loss of population, the 1st was extended all the way up the Atlantic coast to Myrtle Beach. The 2010 redistricting cut the district back to the southeastern corner of the state.
Since that time, the 1st congressional district has had a majority-white population. But, in 2008, with the appeal of theBarack Obama presidential campaign, Democrat Linda Ketner came within two points of winning the 1st district congressional seat. In the following off-year election of 2010, RepublicanTim Scott won the seat with 65 percent of the vote.
During the 2018 South Carolina primaries on June 12, 2018, Mark Sanford lost re-nomination to the seat. The Republicans would go on to lose the seat to the Democrats after the district swung heavily to the Democrats in the 2018 midterm elections.
Tim Scott, a Republican from North Charleston, was elected as the 1st district's representative in 2010. He resigned after he was appointed by GovernorNikki Haley to theUnited States Senate whenJim DeMint resigned on January 1, 2013.
The district boundaries had been redrawn in 2011. Aspecial election was held on May 7, 2013 to fill the vacancy created by Scott's resignation. In a Primary Election held on March 19, 2013,Elizabeth Colbert-Busch, the sister of comedianStephen Colbert, won the Democratic nomination. Former GovernorMark Sanford, who represented the district from 1995 to 2001, and former Charleston County CouncilmanCurtis Eilliott Bostic faced each other in a runoff Primary for the Republican nomination on April 2, 2013. Sanford won the nomination, and defeated challengers Colbert-Busch andSouth Carolina Green Party candidate Eugene Platt in the special election on May 7.
For the118th and successive Congresses (based on redistricting following the2020 census), the district contains all or portions of the following counties and communities:[15]
^The votes for the Democratic candidate includes votes cast for the candidate who also ran under theWorking Families Party ticket.
^Tim Scott resigned his seat in the112th and113th Congresses effective January 2, 2013, in order to be appointed to the United States Senate in place of Senator Jim DeMint, who resigned. As a result, the seat for the 1st congressional district was vacant from the onset of the 113th Congress.
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