Spain is first Black woman to lead SC Democrats. Vice Chair first non-binary party officer.

For the first time in South Carolina’s history, a Black woman will lead the state Democratic Party.

She will have a non-binary party officer by her side as 1st Vice Chair. Christale Spain edged out her competitors Brandon Upson and Catherine Flemming Bruce Saturday to clinch the chairmanship after months of party debate.

Of the delagates, 686 of 1,300 voted for Spain. Upson conceded and asked his supporters to hold Spain up in a show of unity. The common goal, he said, was beating Republicans.

“I'm excited. I'm overwhelmed. I'm overjoyed. I'm just excited that the the delegates chose me,” Spain told reporters after her win.

Spain takes over for Anderson native Trav Robertson, who has led the party since 2017 and announced earlier this year he wouldn’t seek another term.

As the new leadership shapes up, the road to 2024 is a momentous time for SC Democrats.

Spain previously worked as Sen. Bernie Sanders' political director during his 2016 presidential run. During the 2020 presidential primary, she was Sen. Cory Booker's SC State Political Director. During the most recent election cycle, Spain was a senior advisor of Black Engagement for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. Democrats hope the first-in-the-nation presidential primary could help reenergize the voting base. Spain said she was going to use her network to bring more resources into the state and roll out a 46- county strategy prioritizing rural voters.

“I laid the foundation in 2020 when we mobilized 1.1 million voters, so we know. We're going after them and we want to turn them out,” she said.

Spain, visibly emotional after her victory, garnered key endorsements leading up to the convention, including a show of support from U.S. Rep. Jim Clyburn, who is often credited for reviving President Joe Biden’s 2020 campaign.

She is joined by Colleen Condon, former Charleston County Councilor, as the 1st Vice Chair. Condon is the first non-binary state party officer to be elected to leadership.

The 1st Vice Chair had six contenders vying for the position, including former SCDP Chair, Trav Robertson, and 3rd Vice Chair, Jalen Elrod, from Greenville. The race went into two run-offs before Condon overtook their competitors.

South Carolina has remained a Republican bastion for decades now. No Democrat has won a statewide race since former State Superintendent Jim Rex's win in 2006.

In the 2022 elections, all of the party's statewide candidates lost their races by over 10 percentage points.

In the Statehouse, Democrats flipped one House seat in Richland County during the 2022 midterm election but lost eight seats, including several Black female legislators. Republicans lead the SC House composition, 88-36.

The last big Democratic push came when current DNC Chair Jaime Harrison ran a massive, yet unsuccessful, campaign against Sen. Lindsey Graham in 2020.

Harrison, a former SC Democratic Party Chair, said Spain’s experience from the ground up will help elevate diverse voice in the party.

“This move is a reflection of our party’s strength and diversity. In turn, it will elevate new, diverse voices that for too long had to wait until later in the process, as we re-elect President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris,” Harrison said in a press statement.

With Spain’s election, four of the five early states in the 2024 presidential calendar — Nevada, Michigan, Georgia, and South Carolina ― will be led by state party chairs who are Black women, Harrison said.

The rules used to guide what SC Democratic leadership looks like

Earlier this year, South Carolina Democrats settled on rules that would open the door for more LGBTQ representation.

Rules mandated that the 1st Vice Chair be of a gender different from the Chair, the 2nd Vice Chair of a race different from the Chair, and the 3rd Vice Chair should be between the ages of 18 and 36.

DNC National Committeewoman Carol Fowler told the Greenville News the rules were a reaction to South Carolina Democratic Party’s long racial history.

For the past 100 years, Democrats have been primarily led by white, male party workers, Fowler said.

Things changed after World War II and the onset of the Civil Rights movement in the 1950s and 1960s. Black officers who fought in the war came back and many were discouraged by the lack of representation in the leadership.

Fowler, who was the first female state party Chair, said SC Democrats changed state party rules in the early 1970s to require some officers to be representative of the voter base.

“We just wanted more kinds of people than white men participating in our party,” Fowler said.

Earlier this year, the state party tweaked the rule about the 1st Vice Chair’s position to expand other spectrums of gender identity.

“We recognize that there's more to life than just men and women,” Fowler said about the rule change that helped lead to Condon’s historic win.

Highlights from the SC Democratic convention

Democrats expected the day to be contentious and doused in quips Saturday at the Goodman building at the SC fairgrounds in Columbia.

Tensions rose from the war of words  between Upson and Robertson earlier this year. Robertson accused Upson of helping a GOP candidate in the 2022 Charleston County Council, despite a Democrat running in that election.

In response, Upson admitted he had helped GOP candidates, previously, but said the work was minor and limited to creating a website. He accused Robertson of mischaracterizing his work. Since then, Upson's supporters advocated for a paper ballot vote for the Chair's race to ensure voices weren't quelled due to the public nature of standing votes. As expected, the first sign of conflict arose when delegates had to decide their method of voting in the first hour of the convention.

However, a majority of the delegates voted against it and pushed to vote by standing up.

Another option, ranked choice voting, also died a quick death after Fowler clarified that organizers would have to print additional ballots.

Devyani Chhetri covers the South Carolina State House and is a watchdog SC government reporter. You can reach her at dchhetri@gannett.com or @ChhetriDevyani.

This article originally appeared on Greenville News: Christale Spain becomes first Black woman to lead SC Democrats