 | |||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||
 County results Hollings: 40–50% 50–60% 60–70% 70–80% Hartnett: 40–50% 50–60% | |||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||
The1992 United States Senate election in South Carolina was held on November 3, 1992. IncumbentDemocratic U.S. SenatorFritz Hollings won reelection to his sixth (his fifth full) term. Apart from Hollings's first election to the Senate in1966, this was the closest election of his Senate career. This is the last time that South Carolina simultaneously voted for presidential and U.S. Senate candidates of different political parties.
| Republican primary | ||
|---|---|---|
| Candidate | Votes | % |
| Thomas F. Hartnett | 123,572 | 76.8% |
| Charlie E. Thompson | 37,352 | 23.2% |
The race between Hollings and Hartnett was between two politicians from theLowcountry. Hartnett attacked Hollings for co-sponsoring a bill in 1983 that would have outlawed discrimination against homosexuals and Hollings shot back about questions of Hartnett's integrity for pushing for military contracts with a firm he had ties with inNorth Charleston. The anti-incumbency mood helped to bring Hartnett close to topping Hollings in the general election, but South Carolina voters traditionally support their incumbent politicians and Hollings was elected for another six-year term, albeit with a much reduced margin.
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Democratic | Ernest Hollings (incumbent) | 591,030 | 50.1% | −13.0% | |
| Republican | Thomas F. Hartnett | 554,175 | 46.9% | +11.3% | |
| Libertarian | Mark Johnson | 16,987 | 1.9% | +1.2% | |
| American | Robert Barnwell Clarkson II | 11,568 | 1.0% | +0.4% | |
| No party | Write-Ins | 703 | 0.1% | +0.1% | |
| Majority | 36,855 | 3.2% | −24.3% | ||
| Turnout | 1,180,438 | 76.8% | +20.2% | ||
| Democratichold | |||||
