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.
We had an intact election system for reasonably fair mid terms and a pres election for that to happen. I am absolutely not confident America will get fair enough elections in the midterms in 10 months, nevermind 3 years from now. All while potentially irreversible structural changes are taking place making it impossible to remove the right wing from any branch of government. I don’t think waiting for the presidential election or for the trends we see now to pan out is anything to pin hopes on.