The Republicans won a special South Carolina House election on Tuesday, but the Democrats overperformed by double digits compared to their performance in the 2024 presidential election.
Republican John Lastinger won 62.3 percent of the vote in the election for the 88th district seat, beating Democrat Chuck Hightower, who secured 37.7 percent. This gave the Republicans a net win of +24.6 percent over the Democrats.
This represents an improved performance for the Democrats compared to the 2024 presidential election, when President Donald Trump beat Kamala Harris in the district by 67 percent to 32 percent, according to The State newspaper. In that election, the Republicans won with a net margin of +35 percentage points.
There isn’t a single Republican in the House who I want to see stay in office. That said, trying to get every single one out just isn’t going to happen. A “positive trend” doesn’t mean anything in districts as strong as this one, but there are plenty of purple districts where that positive trend means a flipped seat. And all the gerrymandering to secure more seats means each seat is less safe (those blue voters didn’t disappear, even if their district essentially did) so that could backfire as well.