Today, Ott is an anomaly.
White Democrats are a nearly extinct breed in the House.
Of 124 House members, only 19 are white Democrats. A 20th, state Rep. Cathy Harvin, who represented Clarendon and Williamsburg counties, died in December.
When redistricting, the once-in-a-decade redrawing of state House and Senate district lines, happens later this year, many lawmakers predict white House Democrats will number fewer than 10. Most at risk are those white Democrats who now represent districts in the Pee Dee.
The 10 white Democrats in the Senate, who retain some influence even today because of that institution’s rules, are expected to fare better in redistricting.
African-American Democrats, who now hold 28 House seats and nine Senate seats, also are likely to retain their numbers, in part, because redistricting rules, in response to historic discrimination in the South, require the preservation of districts where a majority of voters are black.
“When you make a rule that protects one group of legislators, even if it’s for a good reason, it will be at the expense of another group of legislators,” said state Rep. Ted Vick, a white Democrat who represents Chesterfield County in the Pee Dee. “In South Carolina, that’s white Democrats.”
The plummeting number of white Democrats in the House has Democrats — white and black — mulling a question that would have been unthinkable 50 years ago: Can their party save its last white members?
Redistricting and rural S.C.
Fifty years ago, every member of the S.C. General Assembly — all 124 House members and 46 senators — was a white Democrat. The word “Republican” was still a post-Sherman-esque curse, and laws written by segregationist white Democratic politicians prevented the election of African-Americans.
Then, in the civil rights era, South Carolina’s political hierarchy began to change. Initially, the change was slow. Even 20 years ago, white Democrats controlled the state’s political structure, holding 28 of the state Senate’s 46 seats and 60 seats in the 124-seat S.C. House. But as more and more white voters — who account for roughly 70 percent of S.C. voters — fled the Democratic Party, that change became a torrent.
Today, white S.C. House Democrats are South Carolina’s political version of an endangered species, threatened with extinction, their numbers likely to shrink even more soon.
The dwindling number of white Democratic politicians is not unique to South Carolina.
For 50 years, the once-solid Democratic South has bled white Democrats. Today, for instance, they now hold only 15 percent of Southern seats in Congress.
With Republican majorities drawing new S.C. House and Senate districts this spring, the expectation is some rural House districts, longtime strongholds for white Democrats, will be erased.
Rural South Carolina, including the Pee Dee, is losing population, according to U.S. census data. Meanwhile, urban areas of the state, including the Grand Strand, the Charlotte suburb of York County and Beaufort-Hilton Head are growing due to new residents.
As political districts are redrawn to reflect those population shifts, white Democrats anticipate that some of their rural districts will be combined. Areas now represented by two or three House members will have just one.
“Rural South Carolina has so many infrastructure needs already – water, roads, bridges,” Vick said. “And, now, they’re going to have fewer people watching out for them.”
Rural areas of the state may not be the only losers.
State Rep. Leon Stavrinakis, a white Democrat who represents part of Charleston, said the loss of white Democrats also will polarize House debates, largely leaving only the more liberal members of the all-Democratic Black Legislative Caucus members to oppose Republicans.
“Most white Democrats here are more moderate than the Black Caucus,” he said. “Without them, a voice of moderation will be lost.”
Democrats say they have a game plan to save the last white Democrats.
They have raised about $50,000 and are in the process of hiring attorneys to help draw Democratic-friendly versions of the redistricting maps.
“I want to see districts that have the most diversity possible,” Ott said. “If you draw a 98 percent white district, chances are you’re going to get a Republican elected. That’s pretty cut and dry. But if you give me a district that’s 70-30, then I’ve got the ability to … elect a Democrat.”
In a turnaround from previous redistricting years, black Democrats also say they will fight on behalf of white Democrats.
For example, state Rep. Bakari Sellers, an African-American Democrat who represents Bamberg County, said he is willing to have his district’s lines redrawn to reduce its number of reliably Democratic African-American voters if it would help preserve white Democratic ranks.
“The Democratic Party is a big tent. It has to be diverse. It has to be reflective of all shades of people,” Sellers said. “We’re going to fight to keep it.”
State Rep. Leon Howard, a black Richland County Democrat, says several other African-American legislators may follow Sellers’ lead.
“We all know it’s never good to have all one color, all one gender,” he said.
The willingness of white and black Democrats to work together represents a change from 20 years ago.
In the mid-1990s, members of the Legislative Black Caucus, feeling that they had been taken for granted by white Democrats, struck deals with white House Republicans to draw new districts lines. The result was a redistricted Legislature with more white-majority districts that Republicans could win and more black-majority districts that black Democrats could win.
Faced with extinction, some white Democrats bolted to the GOP. One later was elected governor as a Republican. Another today is head of the Senate Finance Committee.
The redistricting deal paved the way for Republicans to take over the House in 1994. In November, Republicans set a new record for the number of GOP members of the House — 76.
“There’s no way there will be a deal this time,” said state Rep. Bill Clyburn, D-Aiken, chairman of the Black Caucus.”
It may be a moot point.
But with Republicans holding a 76-47 majority in the House, they may not need to cut a deal with any group of Democrats to get the district lines that they want to protect and promote the GOP ranks.
New party leader, new message?
District maps are just one problem facing S.C. Democrats, both black and white.
The Democratic Party’s message does not reflect the world view of the majority of South Carolinians, some Democrats say.
Other Democrats complain the state party has failed to raise enough money for Democratic candidates, to challenge the GOP or to drive the Democratic message into the minds of voters.
Some speculate a new era for Democratic messaging could begin this spring, when current party chairwoman Carol Fowler steps down.
While names of possible candidates for party chairman are floating about, no Democrat has officially announced a run.
Still, hopes are high.
“We certainly are hopeful that when we pick a new leader we will pick somebody who can energize the party in South Carolina,” Ott said. “What we need is a hybrid of Dick Harpootlian (chairman of the state party in 1998, when Democrat Jim Hodges was elected governor).
“He’s kind of crusty — and sometimes he may have gone one sentence too far — but he was a motivator, and he was good on the stump and he could carry the Democratic message in any debate with a Republican. We would be looking for someone like that who has the energy and enthusiasm to carry the party message.”
The new chairperson should build on what is working for local Democrats, advises Phil Noble, chairman of the S.C. New Democrats.
“Democrats still hold a majority of county council seats (that hold partisan elections),” Noble said. “Think of all the Democratic mayors -- Beaufort, Charleston, Georgetown, Florence, Sumter, Rock Hill, Gaffney, Clemson, Columbia. It goes on and on. Let’s look at what we’re doing right on the local level and build on it.”
Hibernation instead of extinction?
Long term, it could be that only the passage of time helps white Democrats bounce back.
“It will reverse again on its own,” said state Rep. Joe Neal, an African-American Democrat who represents Richland County. “People realize that one party dominating with one political thought is not good. It wasn’t good when Democrats dominated, and it’s not good when Republicans dominate. The pendulum will swing again.”
Shifting national demographics trends, which will make the South more diverse, also could work in Democrats’ favor.
Other Democrats say the pendulum could swing the Democratic way faster.
“At some point in South Carolina, the pendulum swung too far to the left and it left a huge vacuum in the center,” Ott said. “The Republicans were in a position to fill the void left in the center.
“Right now, (Republicans) have moved their agenda so far to the right the same vacuum is being created in the middle. Democrats and white Democrats will be poised to bring in moderate, fiscally conservative leadership to take over that middle.”
Bemused Republicans say Democrats still just don’t get it.
The GOP message is right on target for a majority of S.C. voters, says Kenny Bingham, a Lexington County Republican and House Majority Leader.
“You have to look back at some of the founding principles of our country and that’s personal responsibility and limited government interference, and that has been our message on the Republican side, especially here in South Carolina.
“Our message is what the mass of the population wants to hear. It explains our gains.”
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