With the clock ticking; six Republican candidates are still alive and kicking.
In less than five days, Saturday, February 20, Republicans will cast their votes in the South Carolina primary,
The Democrats hold their primary in the Palmetto state on February 27th.
From the looks of the latest polling data, Donald Trump is still king of the hill.
According to a Public Policy Polling survey http://goo.gl/7RTZ3 , published in The State (a daily newspaper in Columbia, S.C.) on Monday, the real estate mogul's support is at 35 percent with U.S. Senators Ted Cruz of Texas and Marco Rubio of Florida locked in a tight battle with 18 percent each.
Ohio Gov. John Kasich is in fourth at 10 percent support, followed by former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson, tied with 7 percent support each.
The State reported in a separate poll that former secretary of state Hillary Clinton holds a commanding double-digit lead in South Carolina with 55 percent support over Vermont senator Bernie Sanders at 34 percent.
Since South Carolina will receive so much attention in the next couple of weeks, I put together a brief tip sheet on the Palmetto State.
I hope you find it helpful.
South Carolina: Fast Facts
One of the 13 original colonies, South Carolina became the eighth state to ratify the Constitution in 1788, the first to secede from the union in December 1860 and the site of the first shots fired in the Civil War, at Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor in April 1861.
Capital: Columbia. Much of the city was destroyed in a spectacular fire after the undefended city surrendered to Union Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman and his troops on Feb. 17, 1865, the same day Confederate troops evacuated Charleston in the final weeks of the war.
Motto: Dum Spiro Spero (“While I Breathe I Hope”)
State Songs: “Carolina” and “South Carolina on my Mind”
State Dance: The Shag
Population: 4.8 million
S.C. African-American Population: 28 percent (2010 Census).
South Carolina is one of the few states where Democrats and Republicans vote on different dates; the Republican primary is scheduled for Feb. 20, 2016 and the Democratic primary for Feb. 27, 2016.
Geography:
- Borders – Atlantic Ocean, Georgia, North Carolina
- Time zone – Eastern
- Total area – 31,189 square miles (41st largest state)
Greatest distances:
North to south – 218 miles
East to west – 275 miles - Largest county – Horry (1,134 square miles), home to Myrtle Beach
- Smallest county – McCormick (360 square miles), on the Savannah River
- Longest river – Savannah River (238 miles that forms state’s western border)
- Miles of coastal shoreline – 2,876 – 11th longest in nation
- Miles of oceanfront beaches – 182
- Biggest industry: Tourism, generating nearly $18 billion a year in economic impact and representing about 189,000 jobs, more than 10 percent of the state’s total employment.
- Biggest farm product: Chicken broilers. South Carolina also produces more peaches than Georgia.
- Movies and TV series filmed here: “Forrest Gump”, “The Big Chill” and “The Prince of Tides” in the Lowcountry; “The Patriot” in the Upstate; “Sleeping with the Enemy” in Abbeville; “The Program” at Williams-Brice Stadium in Columbia; “Army Wives” filmed in Charleston.
- Entertainers from South Carolina: Leeza Gibbons, Andie McDowell, James Brown, Hootie & the Blowfish, Vanna White, Dizzy Gillespie, Eartha Kitt.
- Famous authors and artists: Jasper Johns, Jonathan Green, Pat Conroy, James Dickey, Mary Boykin Chestnut.
- Famous athletes: Joe Frazier, boxing; Alex English, basketball; Jay Haas, golf; Larry Doby; baseball; Althea Gibson, tennis; Xavier McDaniel, basketball; George Rogers, football; Harry Carson, football; Jim Rice, baseball; Jadeveon Clowney, football.
- Major colleges and universities: University of South Carolina, South Carolina State University, Clemson University, Coastal Carolina University, Furman University, Winthrop University, College of Charleston, The Citadel.
- Statesmen, politicians, military men: Andrew Jackson, John C. Calhoun, James Byrnes, Bernard Baruch, William Westmoreland, Ernest Hollings, Strom Thurmond, James Clyburn.
- African-American astronauts: Ron McNair (died in the Challenger explosion), Charles Bolden (NASA Administrator, appointed by President Barack Obama)
Did you know….?
- South Carolina was named for Charles I, king of England from 1625 to 1649. Carolina is from the Latin word for Charles (Carolus).
- South Carolina registered the most battles and skirmishes fought during the Revolutionary War, more than 240.
- African slaves brought a dance from the Kingdom of Kongo (west central Africa) to Charleston, South Carolina-the juba dance (a form of the jitterbug), which slowly evolved into what is now the Charleston.
- Charleston is home to one of the country’s oldest Jewish communities, dating back to 1695 (only 37 years after the first Jewish settlement of Newport, RI).
- Palmetto (meaning “little palm'') is not a tree. It is a grass.
- South Carolina is the first and only place in North America where tea has been grown and is the only state to ever have produced tea commercially-Charleston Tea Plantation (Wadmalaw Island in the Low County).
- The Citadel, SC's state supported military college, was established (1842) because white planters feared a slave rebellion and, therefore, felt the need to train a militia.
- South Carolina traditionally has the longest deer hunting season in the country.
- Most golf holes per capita in the United States. South Carolina has more than 370 courses, which generate more than $2.2 billion in economic impact a year.
- Clemson University was the first major southern university to integrate peacefully (January 22, 1963).
- Upstate South Carolina has one the highest levels of foreign capital investment per capita in the nation.
- The Confederate battle flag flew atop the Capitol Dome in Columbia until 2000, when, after intense debate, it was relegated to a flagpole at the Confederate Soldier Monument on the Statehouse grounds.
South Carolina Political Landscape
- Between 1980 and 2008 the state of South Carolina participated in six GOP presidential primaries. Voters picked the party nominee each time, and three of the winners went on to capture the presidency. The state has not voted Democratic in a national election since 1976.
- The South Carolina Republican Party was established in 1867 following the end of the Civil War.
- Robert Kingston Scott, South Carolina’s first Republican governor, was elected in 1868.
- In 1870, Republican Joseph Rainey was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, becoming the first directly-elected African American member of Congress.
- During the Reconstruction era (1865-1877), six African American Republicans, including Rainey, represented South Carolina in the U.S. Congress.
- In 2010, South Carolina Republicans elected Nikki Haley as governor. She is South Carolina’s first minority and female governor.
- In 2012, Governor Haley made history, again, this time by appointing Republican Tim Scott to the United States Senate. Scott is the first African-American senator from South Carolina and the first from the South since 1881.
- In 2014, Senator Tim Scott became the first African-American U.S. Senator to win election in the South since Reconstruction.
- South Carolina Republicans now hold six out of seven U.S. Congressional seats, both U.S. Senate seats, and nine out of nine Statewide Constitutional offices.
- Beginning with Ronald Reagan’s victory in 1980, South Carolina’s “First in the South” Presidential Primary has been an important test for Presidential candidates
- In 2006, the Democratic National Committee voted to add South Carolina as a new pre-window primary in order to reinforce the state's early position. Barack Obama sailed to victory during the Jan. 26, 2008 primary with a commanding 55.4 percent of the vote compared with 26.5 percent for Hillary Clinton.
- In 2004, John Edwards won the Democratic Primary in South Carolina with 45 percent of the vote compared to 30 percent for the eventual nominee, John Kerry.
- In 1992, Bill Clinton won the South Carolina Democratic Primary with 62.90 percent of the vote, ahead of Paul Tsongas of Massachusetts with 18.33 percent.
- In nine counties in South Carolina, the black or African-American population is over 50 percent. including Allendale County at 72.9 percent.
- According to the South Carolina State Office of Veterans' Affairs, 420,968 veterans live in South Carolina.
Researched and compiled by Bill Lucey
February 16, 2016
Source: South Carolina Department of Parks, Recreation & Tourism, South Carolina Republican Party, Clemson University, University of South Carolina
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