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 County results Hollings: 50–60% 60–70% 70–80% 80–90% McMaster: 50–60% | |||||||||||||||||
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The1986 South Carolina United States Senate election was held on November 4, 1986 to select theU.S. Senator from the state ofSouth Carolina. Popular incumbentDemocratic SenatorFritz Hollings easily defeatedRepublican challengerHenry McMaster to win his fifth (his fourth full) term. This is the last U.S. Senate election in South Carolina where Democrats won with a double-digit margin. McMaster later served as South Carolina’s Lieutenant Governor from 2011 to 2017 and has been the state’s Governor since Nikki Haley resigned in 2017. McMaster also served South Carolina as its State Attorney General from 2003 to 2011.
The Republican primary campaign pitted U.S. AttorneyHenry McMaster against Henry Jordan, a social conservative supported by televangelistPat Robertson and many Christian activists.[1]
| Republican Primary | ||
|---|---|---|
| Candidate | Votes | % |
| Henry McMaster | 27,695 | 53.4% |
| Henry Jordan | 24,164 | 46.6% |
The race was not seriously contested and was not a target by the Republicans. With little financial assistance, McMaster was unable to mount a credible challenge to Hollings' re-election in what became a difficult year for Republicans.
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Democratic | Fritz Hollings (incumbent) | 465,511 | 63.07% | −7.29% | |
| Republican | Henry McMaster | 262,976 | 35.63% | +6.00% | |
| Libertarian | Steven B. Vandervelde | 4,788 | 0.65% | N/A | |
| American | Ray Hillyard | 4,588 | 0.62% | N/A | |
| No party | Write-Ins | 199 | 0.03% | N/A | |
| Majority | 202,535 | 27.44% | −13.29% | ||
| Turnout | 738,062 | 56.6% | −13.9% | ||
| Democratichold | |||||
