History
The Democratic party thrived during the Second Party System between 1832 and the mid-1850s and was one of the causes of the collapse of the Whig Party.
Between 1880 and 1948, South Carolina's Democratic Party dominated state politics. The 1948 Presidential Election marked the winds of change as Strom Thurmond ran on behalf of the State's Rights Party. He accumulated 71% of the votes cast in South Carolina that year.
Nearly 100 years after the conclusion of the Civil War (around 1949), the state was still preoccupied with racial tension, which muffled the debate about the most important issue, the declining condition of the state's economy. During this time, all politics revolved around the Democratic Party. Furthermore, a single faction typically dominated local politics. South Carolina was locked into the traditionalistic culture dominant throughout the South. Political change was often resisted by South Carolina's agrarian leaders. The agrarian leaders were middle class farmers that were thought to maintain the status quo of the Democratic Party. The lower class was generally not allowed to vote.
In addition to resistance towards political change in the mid-1900s, South Carolina's Democratic party also prevented African Americans from voting in the primary election. This prevented African Americans from having a meaningful vote in the election. Due to the fact that there was no Republican candidate, the Democratic Primary election was essentially the Presidential election.
A major shift began in South Carolina politics with President Lyndon B. Johnson's Civil Rights Act of 1964. Over time the SCDP shifted in focus from maintaining white landowner control to representing labor rights, protection of the South Carolina's natural resources, and protecting the civil rights of blacks and other minorities.
Read more about this topic: South Carolina Democratic Party
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