COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Democrats may be in a more celebratory mood than usual as they gather Friday in South Carolina, a state led almost entirely by Republicans.
The party is holding events days after the GOP-led state Senate shot down an effort backed by President Donald Trump to redraw House district lines to help Republicans this fall. That move was aimed at ousting longtime Rep. Jim Clyburn, the state’s lone congressional Democrat and a party powerbroker
who has been in office since 1993.
Friday's gatherings kick off with the Blue Palmetto Dinner, an annual party fundraiser that typically showcases potential presidential contenders and the party’s national figures. Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear will be the headliner.
Clyburn’s own signature event, his “World Famous Fish Fry,” follows the dinner. A gathering that began years ago as a thank you to campaign supporters, it’s become its own destination for White House aspirants. For one minute, they along with South Carolina Democrats seeking a litany of offices have their stump speech moment, appearing alongside Clyburn, whose backing has boosted presidents.
The events are happening as early-in person voting is underway in South Carolina's primary, which is June 9. Voters will choose nominees for offices statewide, including governor, U.S. Senate and U.S. House. Had Republicans in the state Senate not rejected the plan pushed by the White House, those congressional votes would have been canceled and a new primary scheduled under revised districts.
The state Senate vote on redistricting failed Tuesday, the first day of early voting, with some senators saying it was simply too late to change district lines.
Clyburn, who is Black, condemned a White House-led effort he said had been aimed at “zeroing Democratic voters, zeroing African American voters out of the process.”
“I know the state, and I am embarrassed that so many people in our legislature will allow strangers in Washington to tell them what to do, when to do it and how to do it,” Clyburn said as he cast his vote in Orangeburg on Tuesday.
The political drama in South Carolina is part of a Republican strategy to redraw voting districts to the GOP’s advantage in an attempt to hold on to a slim House majority in the midterms. Republicans have moved quickly to try to leverage a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling that weakened minority protections under the federal Voting Rights Act.
At least for now, Clyburn's district has been preserved, as has his place as the Democrat to whom White House hopefuls look for guidance in navigating the state's electorate.
Among the 21 presidential hopefuls who took the stage at his fish fry in 2019 was Joe Biden, who later turned around early 2020 primary stumbles and won a resounding victory here after Clyburn endorsed him.
At 85, the dean of South Carolina's Democrats is currently seeking an 18th term representing the 6th District, one he seems certain to secure now that the redistricting threat has been turned back.
But Clyburn, among the oldest Democrats serving in Washington, has called it an “open question” as to whether this term could be his last, and the Democratic field looking to replace him is anticipated to be massive, whenever he leaves office.
The conclusion of November's midterm elections will mark the unofficial start to a 2028 presidential primary season. Although Democrats' voting order won't be set for months, the early attention primary has already begun in earnest in a variety of states — including South Carolina — that candidates are banking on playing a pivotal role in choosing party nominees.
Beshear, by all indications, is angling to be among them. He has focused much of his attention on the labor leaders on whose support Biden relied in his successful 2020 campaign. Already this year, the two-term governor keynoted the New Hampshire Democratic Party convention, fundraised for local Democrats and took questions at AFL-CIO headquarters.
Last summer, he spent two days in South Carolina, addressing an AFL-CIO convention and meeting with party leaders across the state.
Beshear isn't the only national-level luminary in town. California Rep. Ro Khanna, who has also been to South Carolina several times in recent months, is set to headline the state convention on Saturday and also attend Friday's dinner.
South Carolina's yearly confab comes as the Democratic National Committee mulls its primary calendar for 2028. The state is pitching to go first again, although party luminaries say they wouldn't see it as a loss if another state led off the calendar.
The important facet, they stress, is that South Carolina maintain its status as an early primary state, a position that brings the state that consistently votes Republican in general elections cyclical attention — and campaign spending — from Democrats that it otherwise wouldn't enjoy.
On Thursday, Democratic party chairs in five southern states wrote a letter to DNC officials urging them to again pick South Carolina to go first overall.
___
Meg Kinnard can be reached at http://x.com/MegKinnardAP
