Two official recounts will determine whether a pair of long-serving Democrats in the South Carolina Senate will be ousted in favor of their Republican opponents.
In state Senate District 29, Democrat Gerald Malloy, who’s held his seat in the Pee Dee for 22 years, trails Republican J.D. Chaplin by 287 votes. Meanwhile, in District 17, where Democrat Mike Fanning has served Fairfield, Chester, and parts of York counties since 2016, Republican Everett Stubbs leads by 32 votes.
Because the tallies in both races show margins of less than 1%, the races go to automatic recall, per state law. According to the South Carolina Election Commission, the recalls will be ordered on Nov. 14 and should be completed and certified the same day.
Both Democrats’ seats became vulnerable when the lines of their respective districts were redrawn.
If the Republicans’ pluralities hold up following the official recount next week, the outcome will only deepen the GOP’s two-thirds supermajority in the Statehouse. Republicans gained a supermajority in the state House of Representatives two years ago. Following Tuesday’s election, the party – which flipped four Senate seats – took a supermajority in the 46-member state Senate as well.
The outcome of this year’s general election is expected to smooth Republicans’ agenda in the state.
