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 County results Evans: 50-60% 60-70% 70-80% 80-90% Pope: 50-60% 60-70% 70-80% | ||||||||||||||||||||
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The1894 South Carolina gubernatorial election was held on November 6, 1894 to select thegovernor of the state ofSouth Carolina.John Gary Evans was nominated by theDemocrats and became the85th governor of South Carolina.
The conservatives had been so thoroughly defeated byBen Tillman in1890 and1892 that they did not offer a candidate for the gubernatorial election. Instead, it became a contest between four Tillmanites:William Ellerbe,John Gary Evans, Dr.Sampson Pope andJ.E. Tindal. All four claimed to bethe candidate favored by Tillman, but an embarrassed Tillman responded, "They ought to be spanked for quarrelling about who is the closest friend of Tillman."[1] Initially, Tillman privately supported Ellerbe because he was a farmer, but Tillman became more attracted to Evans as he proved to be a better orator during the campaign. Evans also was able to woo SenatorIrby to his side, who placed the Tillman machine squarely behind his candidacy.
Ellerbe, Pope and Tindall sensed that they would be unable to win any of the delegates for their candidacy at the Democratic convention and therefore requested aprimary election to select the statewide ticket. Tillman refused this request and Evans was unanimously selected as the Democratic gubernatorial candidate at the Democratic convention inColumbia on September 1.
Sampson Pope denounced the selection of Evans as the Democratic candidate by declaring it ring rule because thestate Democratic party was completely run by Tillman and his cronies. He entered the general election as anindependent candidate, but the Tillmanites used the quote uttered byWade Hampton that "an independent was worse than aRadical"[2] to great effect and Pope's campaign was nothing more than aprotest vote.
The general election was held on November 6, 1894 and John Gary Evans was easily elected asgovernor of South Carolina against Sampson Pope.Turnout increased for this election over theprevious election because it was a contested election, but only by just over 100 votes.
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Democratic | John Gary Evans | 39,507 | 69.6 | −30.4 | |
| Independent | Sampson Pope | 17,278 | 30.4 | +30.4 | |
| Majority | 22,229 | 39.2 | −60.8 | ||
| Turnout | 56,785 | ||||
| Democratichold | |||||
| Preceded by 1892 | South Carolina gubernatorial elections | Succeeded by 1896 |
