 | |||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||
 County results Edwards: 50–60% 60–70% Dorn: 50–60% 60–70% 70–80% 80–90% | |||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||
The1974 South Carolina gubernatorial election was held on November 5, 1974, to select thegovernor of the state ofSouth Carolina. Initially considered a longshot candidate,[1] RepublicanJames B. Edwards defeated DemocratW. J. Bryan Dorn with a narrow majority of the vote.
Edwards' victory made him the firstRepublican sinceDaniel Henry Chamberlain in1874 to win a gubernatorial election in South Carolina. It was also the closest gubernatorial election in South Carolina since the disputedelection of 1876.
Existing term limit restrictions made GovernorJohn C. West ineligible to run for reelection.[2] TheSouth Carolina Democratic Party held theirprimary for governor on July 16, 1974 .Charles D. Ravenel emerged as the winner of the runoff election, but theSouth Carolina Supreme Court ruled that Ravenel did not meet the five-year residency requirement in the state's constitution.[3]
U.S. RepresentativeW. J. Bryan Dorn was chosen in a special state convention to be the Democratic candidate in the general election for governor. Dorn, who had supportedGeorge McGovern's 1972 presidential campaign, was described byThe New York Times as a "political maverick" who took a relatively liberal line on racial and religious issues.[4]
| Democratic Primary | ||
|---|---|---|
| Candidate | Votes | % |
| Charles D. Ravenel | 107,345 | 33.6 |
| W.J. Bryan Dorn | 105,743 | 33.1 |
| Earle E. Morris Jr. | 80,292 | 25.2 |
| Eugene N. Zeigler | 11,091 | 3.5 |
| L. Maurice Bessinger | 7,883 | 2.5 |
| John Bolt Culbertson | 4,187 | 1.3 |
| Milton J. Dukes | 2,529 | 0.8 |
| Democratic Primary Runoff | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Candidate | Votes | % | ±% |
| Charles D. Ravenel | 186,985 | 54.8 | +21.2 |
| W.J. Bryan Dorn | 154,187 | 45.2 | +12.1 |
TheSouth Carolina Republican Party held their primary on July 16, 1974, and the contest pittedstate senatorJames B. Edwards against formerArmy Chief of StaffWilliam Westmoreland. Edwards scored an upset victory in the first Republican primary of the state and earned the right to face Dorn in the general election.
| Republican Primary | ||
|---|---|---|
| Candidate | Votes | % |
| James B. Edwards | 20,177 | 57.7 |
| William Westmoreland | 14,777 | 42.3 |
The general election was held on November 5, 1974, and James B. Edwards defeated W.J. Bryan Dorn in what was a banner year for the Democrats in the wake of theWatergate scandal.Turnout was higher than the previous gubernatorial election because of the increasingly competitive nature of the race between the two parties.
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Republican | James B. Edwards | 266,338 | 50.3 | +4.4 | |
| Democratic | W.J. Bryan Dorn | 248,861 | 47.0 | −5.1 | |
| Independent | Peggy Jennings | 8,313 | 1.6 | −0.4 | |
| No party | Write-Ins | 5,528 | 1.1 | +1.1 | |
| Majority | 17,477 | 3.3 | −2.9 | ||
| Turnout | 529,040 | 53.0 | −1.2 | ||
| Republicangain fromDemocratic | |||||
| Preceded by 1970 | South Carolina gubernatorial elections | Succeeded by 1978 |
 | ThisSouth Carolina-related article is astub. You can help Wikipedia byexpanding it. |
.jpg)
