Yesterday’s primary wins by Nikki Haley and Tim Scott in South Carolina may not change the party identification of their respective seats this fall, but they definitely will bring change.
Haley beat U.S. Rep. Gresham Barrett in Tuesday’s runoff, riding the backlash against the state’s notoriously rough-and-tumble politics. She had come within a point of taking the victory outright on June 8. As counting continued, she led with 63 percent of the vote to Barrett’s 37 percent.
Scott, who is also a state representative, beat Paul Thurmond, the son of the late U.S. Sen. Strom Thurmond, in a district that has elected a Republican congressman for three decades. Scott now faces Democrat Ben Frasier, who also is black. If Scott wins, he will become the nation’s first black GOP congressman since 2003 when Oklahoma’s J.C. Watts retired.
Much is being made of their ethnicity, but it is clear that both won because of their conservative credentials and not their physical descriptions.
Way to go South Carolina. November is looking better and better, and can’t get here soon enough.
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