Просмотр кода страницы Английская Википедия:1996 United States Senate election in South Carolina

{{Английская Википедия/Панель перехода}}
{{Short description|Election}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=September 2023}}
{{Multiple issues|
{{more citations needed|date=March 2019}}
{{More footnotes needed|date=August 2020}}
}}

{{Infobox election
| election_name = 1996 United States Senate election in South Carolina
| country = South Carolina
| type = presidential
| ongoing = no
| previous_election = 1990 United States Senate election in South Carolina
| previous_year = 1990
| next_election = 2002 United States Senate election in South Carolina
| next_year = 2002
| election_date = November 5, 1996
| image_size = 125x136px
| image1 = Strom Thurmond.jpg
| nominee1 = '''[[Strom Thurmond]]'''
| party1 = Republican Party (United States)
| popular_vote1 = '''620,626'''
| percentage1 = '''53.38%'''
| image2 = No image.svg
| nominee2 = Elliott Close
| party2 = Democratic Party (United States)
| popular_vote2 = 511,226
| percentage2 = 43.99%
| map_image = 1996 United States Senate election in South Carolina results map by county.svg
| map_size = 220px
| map_caption = County results

'''Thurmond:''' {{legend0|#ffb2b2|40–50%}} {{legend0|#e27f7f|50–60%}} {{legend0|#d75d5d|60–70%}} {{legend0|#d72f30|70–80%}} 
'''Close:''' {{legend0|#a5b0ff|40-50%}} {{legend0|#7996e2|50–60%}} {{legend0|#6674de|60–70%}}
| title = U.S. Senator
| before_election = [[Strom Thurmond]]
| before_party = Republican Party (United States)
| after_election = [[Strom Thurmond]]
| after_party = Republican Party (United States)
}}
{{ElectionsSC}}
The '''1996 South Carolina United States Senate election''' was held on November 5, 1996 to select the [[United States Senate|U.S. Senator]] from the state of [[South Carolina]].  Popular incumbent [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]] Senator [[Strom Thurmond]], won re-election against [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic]] challenger Elliott Springs Close for a seventh full term in office. The margin, however, was one of the closest in Thurmond’s 48-year Senate career. At the age of {{age in years, months and days|1902|12|02|1996|11|05}}, Thurmond became the oldest person ever to be re-elected to the United States Senate. He eventually served out the entirety of what would be his final term and left the Senate on January 3, 2003, at age 100 years and 29 days.

==Democratic primary==
The [[South Carolina Democratic Party]] held their [[Primary election|primary]] on June 11, 1996.  Elliott Springs Close, a 43-year-old political novice from [[Columbia, South Carolina|Columbia]], entered the Democratic primary and faced opposition from black photographer [[Cecil J. Williams]].  Close was a wealthy heir of a textile business, a brother-in-law of President [[Bill Clinton|Clinton's]] [[White House Chief of Staff|chief of staff]] [[Erskine Bowles]], who styled himself as a fiscal conservative and a social moderate.{{citation needed|date=October 2020}}

{| class="wikitable" align="left" style="margin: 1em 1em 1em 0; font-size: 95%;"
|-
! colspan="3" | Democratic Primary
|-
! colspan="1" style="width: 170px"|Candidate
! style="width: 50px"|Votes
! style="width: 40px"|%
|-
|- {{Party shading/Democratic}}
 |  Elliott Springs Close
 |  align="right" | 102,953
 |  align="right" | 62.1%
|- {{Party shading/Democratic}}
 |  Cecil J. Williams
 |  align="right" | 62,783
 |  align="right" | 37.9%
|-
|}
{{clear left}}

==Republican primary==
The [[South Carolina Republican Party]] held their [[primary election|primary]] on June 11, 1996 and the contest pitted 93-year-old incumbent Senator Strom Thurmond against two relatively unknown candidates.  [[Secretary of State of South Carolina|Secretary of State]] James Miles was the only Republican statewide official who had not endorsed Strom Thurmond and it was rumored that he was considering entering the primary.{{Citation needed|date=June 2021}}  Thurmond's press secretary, Mark Goodin, criticized Miles for not endorsing Thurmond and told those who contributed to Miles campaign fund that they were contributing to a contest against Thurmond, not the state's other Senator, Democrat [[Ernest Hollings|Fritz Hollings]].  Miles soon endorsed Thurmond which left Harold G. Worley, a [[South Carolina House of Representatives|state representative]] from [[Myrtle Beach, South Carolina|Myrtle Beach]], and Charlie Thompson, an educator from [[Charleston, South Carolina|Charleston]], as the only opponents to Thurmond's election.  Worley spent $600,000 of his own money and based his campaign almost solely on Thurmond's age. He questioned Thurmond's mental ability to make decisions and whether he had the capacity to fill out a full term, which would put Thurmond at one hundred years old.  Nevertheless, Thurmond cruised to a primary victory and Worley only carried [[Horry County, South Carolina|Horry County]].

{| class="wikitable" align="left" style="margin: 1em 1em 1em 0; font-size: 95%;"
|-
! colspan="3" | Republican Primary
|-
! colspan="1" style="width: 170px"|Candidate
! style="width: 50px"|Votes
! style="width: 40px"|%
|-
|- {{Party shading/Republican}}
 |  [[Strom Thurmond]]
 |  align="right" | 132,145
 |  align="right" | 60.6%
|- {{Party shading/Republican}}
 |  Harold G. Worley
 |  align="right" | 65,666
 |  align="right" | 30.1%
|- {{Party shading/Republican}}
 |  Charlie Thompson
 |  align="right" | 20,185
 |  align="right" | 9.3%
|-
|}
{{clear left}}

==General election campaign==
The race between Thurmond and Close boiled down to whether Thurmond could retain the affection of voters who had re-elected him over and over or whether Close could convince the voters that Thurmond's age was an impediment to effective service for the state.  Thurmond therefore adopted a non-confrontational approach to the campaign.  He chose to not debate Close, not only because he had not debated an opponent since [[Olin D. Johnston]] in the [[1950 United States Senate election in South Carolina|1950 Senate election]], but also because it would only emphasize the 50-year age difference between the candidates.  Thurmond energetically traversed the state greeting the voters and pointed out to them that with his experience, he could more effectively serve the state than a political neophyte.

Close ran television advertisements that highlighted the age issue by declaring that although Thurmond had admirably served the state for over fifty years, it was time for someone new to represent South Carolina.  He poured almost a million dollars into his campaign, but his campaign never remained focused.  For instance, trying to not appear too wealthy, Close traded his fancy foreign car for a [[Cadillac]].  He acquired a speeding ticket in the Cadillac and a newspaper criticized him for driving a luxury automobile.  Frustrated, Close then switched his Cadillac for a Buick.  Another instance of his jumbled campaign came when said that his family's textile factories did not lay off an employee during the Great Depression.  Yet a week after this statement, three mills were closed and 850 employees were out of work.

By the day of the election on November 5, polls had shown that the voters thought it was time for Thurmond to retire, but they did not want to throw him out of office.  Close spent almost a million dollars of his fortune to defeat Thurmond and his decision to raise a million dollars from outside sources was attacked by the Thurmond campaign of a lack of confidence by Close in his own campaign.  Thurmond spent a little more than $2.6 million on the race and was said to have "dodged the bullet" by ''[[The State (newspaper)|The State]]'' reporter Lee Bandy after his victory.<ref>Bass, p321</ref>  The campaign aides of Thurmond stated he could have been defeated had either former [[Governor of South Carolina|Governor]] [[Richard Riley]] or [[South Carolina's 5th congressional district|5th district congressman]] [[John M. Spratt, Jr.]] run against him.

==Election results==
{{Election box begin
| title = South Carolina U.S. Senate Election, 1996}}
{{Election box winning candidate with party link
 | party = Republican Party (United States)
 | candidate = [[Strom Thurmond]] (incumbent)
 | votes = 620,326
 | percentage = 53.38%
 | change = -10.83%
}}
{{Election box candidate with party link|party=Democratic Party (United States)|candidate=Elliott Springs Close|votes=511,226|percentage=43.99%|change=+11.47%}}
{{Election box candidate with party link|party=Libertarian Party (United States)|candidate=Richard T. Quillian|votes=12,994|percentage=1.12%|change=-0.72%}}
{{Election box candidate with party link|party=Reform Party (United States)|candidate=Peter J. Ashy|votes=9,741|percentage=0.84%|change=N/A}}
{{Election box candidate with party link|party=Natural Law Party (United States)|candidate=Annette C. Estes|votes=7,697|percentage=0.66%|change=N/A}}
{{Election box candidate
 | party = ''No party''
 | candidate = [[Write-in candidate|Write-Ins]]
 | votes = 141
 | percentage = 0.01%
 | change = N/A
}}
{{Election box majority|votes=109,100|percentage=9.39%|change=-22.30%}}
{{Election box turnout|votes=1,162,125|percentage=64.0% <!--1,814,777 registered voters-->|change=+8.8%}}
|-
| {{party color cell|Republican Party (United States)}}
| colspan=5 |[[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]] '''hold'''
|-
{{Election box end}}

==See also==
* [[1996 United States Senate elections]]
* [[List of United States senators from South Carolina]]

==Notes==
<!--See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Footnotes for an explanation of how to generate footnotes using the <ref(erences/)> tags-->
{{reflist}}

== References ==
* {{cite book | last = Bass | first = Jack |author2=Marilyn W. Thompson | title = Strom: The Complicated Personal and Political Life of Strom Thurmond | url = https://archive.org/details/stromcomplicated00bass | url-access = registration | year = 2005 | publisher = PublicAffairs | pages = [https://archive.org/details/stromcomplicated00bass/page/319 319–321] | isbn = 9781586482978 }}
* {{cite news | first=Joshua | last=Green | title = A Gambling Man
 | url=https://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200401/green-brieflives | publisher=The Atlantic | date=January 1, 2004 | access-date=January 28, 2008 }}
* {{cite news | first=Kevin | last=Sack | title = The Age Issue Dogs Senator Thurmond, 93 | url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C01EEDE1739F932A25755C0A960958260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=all | work=The New York Times | date=June 11, 1996 | access-date=January 28, 2008 }}
* {{cite news | title = South Carolina | url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,985484,00.html | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070626122618/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,985484,00.html | url-status=dead | archive-date=June 26, 2007 | publisher=Time | date=November 4, 1996 | access-date=January 28, 2008 }}

{{United States elections, 1996}}
{{United States Senate elections in South Carolina}}

[[Category:1996 United States Senate elections|South Carolina]]
[[Category:United States Senate elections in South Carolina|1996]]
[[Category:1996 South Carolina elections]]
[[Category:Strom Thurmond]]
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