SC Dems to elect next leader, hoping to boost party’s election chances after infighting

Democrats in South Carolina will soon decide their next leader, hoping to turn around election losses year after year amid an ever-evolving finger-pointing game of who’s to blame.

A big task is at hand for the eventual new leader, who will oversee the high-profile lead-off Democratic presidential primary early next year and work to ensure the South Carolina contest stays first in the nominating order.

Trav Robertson, the current party chair since 2017, announced in February his plans to step down as chairman, sparking what has turned into a contentious leadership campaign that includes sniping on social media and an endorsement from South Carolina’s most powerful Democrat, U.S. Rep. Jim Clyburn.

Vying for the job are three candidates: activist Catherine Fleming Bruce, former party executive director Christale Spain and chair of the party’s Black caucus, Brandon Upson. The latter two are seen as the most likely to succeed Robertson, who is a candidate himself in the race for the party’s first vice chair. Spain, carrying high-profile backers, is widely considered the frontrunner.

All three say they want the party to evolve and avoid the losses they’ve experienced in statewide and legislative elections, which includes losing five House and Senate seats in 2020 and eight House seats in 2022.

However, they all differ on the strategy to solve the party’s problems.

Spain said the party needs to better reach out to young voters and people of color. Upson wants to work with labor unions to contribute to the party. Bruce, a longtime activist, wants to first protect current officeholders in elections.

Clyburn, who represents a majority-minority district that covers part of the state capital and much of the rural center of the state, blamed Democrats’ losses not on leadership but on redistricting, a process controlled by the Republican-dominated Legislature.

“We have the same problem that Democrats have got in Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana (and) Arkansas,” Clyburn said in an interview with The State. “Redistricting has killed us, and nobody who chairs the party can reverse that.”

Robertson, who declined to comment about seeking first vice chair, has instead taken the blame, while others question whether the Democratic lawmakers who lost in recent elections did the necessary voter outreach to win.

Clyburn, who endorsed Spain for chair, said he had no role in influencing who jumped into the race.

“I don’t ever tell anybody to run for anything. I don’t tell them not to run,” Clyburn said.

Winning the chair’s race will, like any election, come down to math.

Whoever gets the majority of the 1,600 state delegates from all 46 South Carolina counties at the April 29 convention wins. Those delegates will participate in a standing vote, meaning every delegate will know how the others vote.

And, as the whip count goes on, candidates are raising money and trotting out endorsements.

But will the infighting that has plagued the party over the past few years stop after April 29?

”If we alienate large groups of folks in any of the camps, we’re not going to make it,” said Bruce, who unsuccessfully ran for U.S. Senate last year and has promoted 14 endorsements in her bid, all from former county party chairs. “We don’t have enough people to be leaving folks on the side of the road.”

Upson: Messaging, status quo a problem for Dems

In an interview, Upson says two factors cause problems for Democrats statewide: Bad messaging with an unwillingness to talk about “central” Democratic issues, such as gun restrictions and organized labor, and running the same type of candidate.

“We’ve been doing what Einstein calls insanity, the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result, because the same people have handpicked our party’s leadership for 20 years,” Upson said. “And we’ve been, if you noticed, on a 20-year decline year over year.”

Upson is running on a slate with Mary Geren of Anderson County, Melina Rodelo of Oconee County and Erica Sampson of Charleston County, all who are vying for vice chair positions.

To court delegates before April 29, Upson has traveled the state hoping to sway them with a new vision for the party.

He says he’s helped candidates win in 22 out of 40 races in the past 13 years, including flipping 14 Republican-held offices.

And he wants them to consider dedicating state party money to recruit Democrats in high school and college, find more Black female candidates to support and rebuild the grassroots infrastructure.

Ultimately, rebuilding year-round outreach requires money, and Upson said he wants to reach out to labor unions in the state to push them contribute $1 million each to the party over 10 years. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates less than 3% of South Carolina workers are represented by labor unions.

“Now we can be sustained,” Upson said. “We can have a full-time staff year round, and the money that we raise thereafter can be focused on strengthening our counting parties, programs and doing the blocking and tackling that’s necessary.”

Upson said he has raised “a lot” of money for his campaign but plans to release fundraising numbers after the race.

Meanwhile, critics have questioned Upson abilities to lead a party into the future and his loyalty after he worked to elect a Republican candidate running for a Charleston County Council seat.

Upson worked for Charleston County Council member Joe Boykin in 2018 and 2021, according to the S.C. Ethics Commission. Boykin unsuccessfully ran as a Republican in 2018 for Charleston County Council, then defeated Anna Johnson, a Black Democrat, in 2022. Upson was paid $3,300 in 2018 as Boykin’s campaign consultant and $1,500 in 2021 to put together Boykin’s website.

“Because Anna Johnson had not been effective in her job for a number of years. That’s why they came and asked me to help in 2018,” Upson said. “Democrats asked me to do that. I didn’t go there to say, ‘Oh, I’m going to help this Republican.’”

That isn’t sitting well with Clyburn.

“I don’t think well of anybody that would hire themselves out to a Republican against a Black woman,” Clyburn said.

Johnson this week sent a letter to delegates about Upson’s work, saying it led Democrats to lose a majority on Charleston County Council.

“It certainly should disqualify him from being our state party chair,” Johnson said in the letter, a copy of which was obtained by The State.

Upson said Democrats can trust him, saying “it’s because of my 13 years of service and sacrifice to this party, and I’ve been the one in the trenches.”

State Rep. Gilda Cobb-Hunter, a Democrat representing Orangeburg County for more than 31 years, has endorsed Upson. Cobb-Hunter, who is not a delegate, said she wants the party to better reach out to rural, white and young voters.

“I don’t think (Spain and Bruce) have the capacity to do what needs to be done. I’m interested in somebody who has a vision and who has won and has organized,” Cobb-Hunter said. “Not somebody who has talked about it, but somebody who has actually done it.”

Cobb-Hunter defended Upson’s past work, and questioned how Upson’s critics can take issue with his part work but not with State House Democrats who didn’t support Black female judicial candidates, and in one case supported a former Republican lawmaker.

“It’s been the same group of people calling the shots for the last 20 to 30 years. At what point do we allow different voices to be decision makers?” Cobb-Hunter asked.

Bill Kimler, chair of the Greenwood County Democratic Party, also is backing Upson.

“Brandon has got an undeniable charisma,” Kimler said. “He’s a salesman, but I think that’s what you need at the top level to sell on those who would donate to the party, to sell those on the messaging, to sell people to run for office in their local or statewide races.”

Spain: Party needs to strengthen ground game

Spain heads into the April 29 race with the backing of some of the state’s most high-profile Democrats: Clyburn, past party chair and Democratic National Committee member Carol Fowler, current chair Robertson and Jim Hodges, the last Democrat to hold the governor’s office.

But Spain, who in 2022 worked for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee as the senior adviser of Black engagement, said the powerful backing from party Democrats doesn’t simply mean the party should stay as is.

Moving forward, the focus she said needs to be on the party growing its base with younger voters and people of color.

She estimates it would cost $6 million to $7 million over two years to allow the party to staff up and allow county parties to operate and mobilize. She wants year-round voter engagement and for candidates and the party to be talking about issues that matter to voters.

“We need to do research to find out what’s top of mind for our voters so we know what to talk about, like what’s going to be the mobilizing issue in 2024,” said Spain, who also notes in 2022 she led a communications and national organizing program that won 12 out of 13 competitive U.S. House races, three of which were in North Carolina.

Spain said she wants to start a finance committee to reach out to large donors to contribute to the party, while also revitalizing a sustainable donor program for small monthly contributions. She also touted Georgia’s “strong door-knocking program” as a voter outreach strategy to mimic, and said the party must take advantage of its first primary position to leverage additional support.

”There are some other things that I want to try, since we do have this tremendous opportunity with being first in the nation,” Spain said. “And I’m definitely going to leverage that, because that is about bringing folks into our state who are major players and who have goals of being here for the long haul if it’s not 2024, but 2028.”

With the backing of several county party chairs, and especially Clyburn, Spain rejects that she was somehow handpicked.

“My time in public service has been about serving this party and engaging voters,” said Spain, who would be the party’s first Black female chair if she wins. “People get offended by that, because I’m a top contender in this race and I’ve worked my behind to be that, that’s on them. I got off the sideline on my own to volunteer, not because somebody asked me to.”

Clyburn’s campaign committee contributed $10,000 to Spain, who worked for Clyburn for two years, to run for party chair, according to Federal Elections Commission records.

“The best way to tell what a person will do is to look at what he or she has done,” Clyburn said. “I look at Christale, I see someone who worked in this party doing what you call the grunt work, who never tried to get out in front of anybody, who is as supportive of candidates as you would want them to be, supportive of staffers as you would want anybody to be, (and) who has worked at the state level and the national level.”

Richland County Democratic Party Chairwoman Deyaska Sweatman, whose endorsed Spain with chairs of Charleston, Greenville and Horry counties, said the race for party chair is deeper for Spain that what some have said.

“It’s deeper than a party affiliation for her. It’s about community,” Sweatman said.

Amanda McDougald Scott, Greenville County’s chairwoman, said Spain has the best ability to raise money, the ability to learn new skills and has integrity.

“Christale is the only one who has all of those qualifications,” McDougald Scott said.

Still, some party leaders have yet to decide who they’re backing with a week to go.

“We’ve got three people bringing different experiences to the race,” said Aiken County Democratic Party Chairman Harold Crawford, who will bring 60 delegates to the convention. “And I think what we need across the board is a really good marriage between tried and true methods and new methods,” signaling there needs to be a combination of grassroots efforts with advancing technology.

Antjuan Seawright, a South Carolina-based Democratic strategist, said Democrats have the perfect opportunity to move the party forward and put it in a position to keep and leverage its No. 1 primary status in the years ahead.

But it takes a reality check, he said.

“Republicans have a history of falling in line, and Democrats have a history of falling in love,” said Seawright, who backs Spain. “I think we have to restructure to their model of falling in line instead of falling in love.”