As it turned out, South Carolina Republican Party Chairman Drew McKissick's Oct. 13 guarantee at an Aiken County Republican Party meeting that the Republicans would gain five South Carolina House of Representatives seats in the 2022 elections was too conservative.
The Republicans gained a total of seven seats in Tuesday's election and increased their majority to 88 out of 124 seats ( almost 71%) in the lower house of the South Carolina General Assembly.
"A red wave swept across South Carolina from the coast all the way to the upstate and proved, yet again, what we already know–that this is a solid Republican state," McKissick said in a news release Wednesday morning.
S.C. Rep. Bill Taylor, R-Aiken, said the predicted red wave may have faltered nationally (Republicans are favored to win the U.S. House but not the Senate) but it washed over South Carolina on election day.
Three seats were gained through the redistricting process.
House District 61 moved from heavily Democratic lower Florence County and western Marion County to bright red Horry County. On Tuesday, Republican Carla Shuessler won the seat over Democrat Ashlyn Preaux. She replaces Democrat Roger Kirby, D-Florence in the seat. Kirby defeated fellow S.C. Rep. Cezar McKnight in the Democratic primary in House District 101 and did not face a general election challenger.
House District 66 moved from Orangeburg County to York County. David O'Neal won the seat over Democrat Carla Litrenta. He replaces S.C. Rep. Gilda Cobb-Hunter. Cobb-Hunter won the House District 95 seat to replace Jerry Govan. Govan ran for and lost the Democratic nomination for state superintendent of education.
House District 80 moved from lower Richland County to suburban Charleston. Kathy Landing won the seat over Democrat Donna Brown Newton on Tuesday to replace Democrat Jermaine Johnson. Johnson won the election in House District 70 over another incumbent Democrat.
Five others were flipped from Democratic incumbents to Republican challengers.
Daniel Gibson won the House District 12 seat (McCormick and Greenwood counties) over Anne Parks. Fawn Pedalino won the House District 64 seat (Clarendon and Sumter counties) over incumbent Kimberly Johnson. Matt Leber won the House District 116 (Charleston and Colleton) over Chardale Murray. Jordan Pace beat Krystle Matthews — she also lost the U.S. Senate race to Republican incumbent Tim Scott — in House District 117 (Berkeley). And Bill Hager beat Shedron "Hook" Williams in House District 122 (Hampton and Jasper).
The Democrats flipped one seat: House District 75. In that race, Democrat Heather Bauer defeated Republican incumbent Kirkman Finlay.
McKissick added that wins like Tuesday's don't just happen, people have to work for it.
"We had a great operation with fantastic staff, great volunteers, great candidates, and a great message and that made all the difference," McKissick said.
Taylor added that the big question going forward was whether the Republicans could coalesce rather than splinter to pass a conservative agenda to benefit the state.
