S.C. Republican chairman says GOP will gain supermajority status in S.C. House

Matthew Christian, Aiken Standard, S.C.
·3 min read
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Oct. 14—South Carolina Republican Party Chairman Drew McKissick guaranteed Thursday evening that the Republicans will have a supermajority in the South Carolina House after the Nov. 8 general elections.

He issued a guarantee at an Aiken County Republican Party meeting hosted by the Precinct 64 (Cedar Creek) Republicans that the GOP would gain five seats.

Republicans currently hold 80 of the 124 seats, Democrats currently hold 43 seats, and one seat is vacant. S.C. House Speaker Jay Lucas, R-Darlington, resigned from the House after the session ended this year.

With five additional seats, Republicans would have over two-thirds, 85, of the members of the chamber.

"We are going to have a supermajority in the state House before this election is over," McKissick said. "Matter of fact, I'm going to go on the record right now, Bill, we are going to pick up five state House seats in this cycle. Go ahead, mark it down, we're picking up five seats."

S.C. Rep. Bill Taylor, R-Aiken, was among the people attending the meeting Thursday evening at the Big Red Barn.

McKissick did not specify which House seats the Republicans could gain but three seats have moved from Democratic strongholds to Republican strongholds as a result of the state's redistricting effort.

In specific, House District 61 moves from lower Florence and western Marion counties to Horry County. House District 66 moves from Orangeburg County to York County. And House District 80 moves from lower Richland County to suburban Charleston.

There is one candidate, Republican Cody Mitchell, running to replace Lucas.

There are 20 other races in which a Democratic incumbent faces a Republican challenger: House Districts 12, 15, 41, 49, 50, 54, 55, 64, 70, 77, 79, 90, 93, 95, 102, 105, 116, 117, 119 and 121. None of these races are in Aiken, Edgefield or Barnwell counties.

S.C. Rep. Bill Clyburn, D-Aiken, the representative from House District 82, and S.C. Rep. Lonnie Hosey, D-Barnwell, do not face opponents in the general election.

There is also one race where the Democratic incumbent, S.C. Rep. Leola Robinson, D-Greenville, decided not to run for reelection; and Democrats and Republicans are fighting over the seat.

McKissick said later in his 32-minute speech the Republicans have a good opportunity to gain seats during the election.

"Democrats are doing everything that we can to make our job easier right now," McKissick continued. "Joe Biden is a wonderful spokesman [for the Republican Party]. I think we need to just give him a microphone and let him talk louder. Everyday, it's like what's the latest thing that's going to come out of Joe's mouth."

McKissick also said he had recently seen a CNN video — he said he did not watch the network but would occasionally receive a video — in which a Democratic strategist said that white liberals are not the heart of the party anymore.

"They're dragging them further and faster off to the left," McKissick said. "Smart Democrats are realizing that they're powerless to stop it. They're moving further and faster to the left, and that is moving more and more people away from the Democratic Party."

McKissick said the job of the Republicans is to be there to bring those left behind by the Democratic Party into the Republican fold by sharing a message that is relevant to them rather than the "woke garbage that's coming out of Washington."

He said the keys to getting that message to those voters left behind by the Democratic Party were manpower to spread the word and to work on behalf of candidates and the party, the communication to get the right message to the right person, and the money to be able to fund candidates and the party's ability to get their message out there.