Greenville, Spartanburg Democrats reflect on election defeats | Spartanburg politics

SPARTANBURG — A coordinated effort by Greenville and Spartanburg Democrats hoped to energize upstate voters and shake Republicans’ long-held strong hold on the region.

The effort, dubbed Priority sixidentified voters who didn’t participate in recent elections and targeted 11 strategic races in hopes of picking up some red seats.

Like Democrats across the country and in South Carolinawhere did the Republican Party succeed? Republicans gain a veto-free majority in the Senate For the first time in a century, upstate Democrats suffered a setback.

All 10 Democrats who challenged Republicans lost, and each Republican led their Democratic challenger by more than 20 points, according to the data. unofficial election results as of Wednesday.

At the top of the list of efforts, Katherine Harvey challenged US Representative William Timmons, but lost by about 23 points.

But during her concession speech Tuesday night, Harvey, who also leads the Spartanburg County Democrats, said the movement is just getting started and she’s not going anywhere.

“We have something to fight for,” Harvey said. “We’re going to talk about this every day, all day, until these seats turn over and you give me a say on it.”

Despite Harvey’s encouraging tone, her efforts hardly affected her race.

If the unofficial numbers hold up, the loss would be only slightly closer than Timmon’s 25-point victory over the Democratic challenger in 2020 and around 2020. same margin in 2018. He had no equal in 2022.

Harvey, the most high-profile candidate in the race, has reignited the race and raised more moneycompared to any recent Democratic challengers, just over $480,000, according to government finance data this covers the period until mid-October.

Upstate Democrats blamed Democratic obstruction at the national level and said voter education and turnout could have been better. The losses have disappointed party leaders, but they see the harsh reality clearly and say much remains to be done.

“We knew we might not win anything this year, but that didn’t mean we weren’t going to try,” said Amanda McDougald Scott, chairwoman of the Greenville County Democratic Party.

Democrats find silver lining in huge losses

The field of candidates who will challenge Republican incumbents in the ruby ​​red upstate is already a win for Democrats, party officials say. Without these efforts, more Republicans would have gone unopposed in November.

Yvonne Julian, leader of the Greenville County Republican Party, said Democrats’ challenge to Republicans helps her party differentiate candidates from Republicans.

“(Democrats) did have candidates, and I give them credit because it’s not an easy task to find people who aren’t seasoned politicians,” Julian said. “But I didn’t see any evidence that they were able to activate or motivate voters.”

Democrats disagree with Julian on voter mobilization. Phil Ford, a consultant hired to help Priority Six, said Democrats have laid the groundwork for future possibilities.

He pointed to Democrats’ slightly better showing in South Carolina’s 33rd House District. six points more than last time.

Ford also said the new elections allowed Upstate Democrats to clean up their voter data to better prepare them for the next election.

David Petty, first vice chairman of the Spartanburg County Democratic Party, said data is becoming increasingly important in politics. Without candidate input, it is difficult to gather new information about who voted and how.

“We’ve gotten a lot of data from our conversations with voters: how they lean, who they support, what issues are important to them,” Petty said. “Over the next few months we will begin to analyze this and put it into our own database for future elections.”

Upstate Democrats are preparing for future elections

Scott, the Greenville County Democratic leader, said candidates and volunteers need to be prepared to work.

Despite the heavy losses, party leaders did not think the lopsided vote margin would hinder the future field of candidates. They said they were warned in advance that turning over the red seats would not be easy.

Particular attention was also paid to education and communication with voters. Scott said some voters were unaware of the state’s conservative laws, such as restrictions on abortion. Ford added that Democrats will need to focus on pocketbook issues and convince voters. Democratic politics will improve lives.

He also cited the success of North Carolina Democrats. The state voted for Trump, but still elected a Democratic governor and broke the Republican supermajority in the state legislature.

“We saw them split tickets (in North Carolina) and we need to find that secret sauce,” Ford said.

In the end, many simply thought that the National Democrats’ losses would be difficult to overcome at the polls. Vice President Kamala Harris is on her way to… lose all seven oscillating states and popular vote. Republicans even made progress in deep blue states like New Jersey.

Harvey lost to Timmons by about 23 points in a much tighter Democratic field than when he defeated a Democratic challenger by the same margin in 2018, when the national climate favored Democrats.

Scott said she hopes a similar blue wave will emerge again in 2026, after President-elect Donald Trump has been in office for two years. She said it’s a long-term process. At the same time, she said, the party will begin work for the future.

“I think it’s quite possible that in the next two years, as people get tired of Trump, there could be a very different attitude in the country,” Scott said.