South Carolina is accustomed to increased attention in the years leading up to presidential elections, with the state hosting the South’s first voting contests for several of the last cycles. But even by those standards, 2024 feels different. Democrats elevated South Carolina to the top of their presidential primary calendar, leapfrogging Iowa and New Hampshire. Republicans, meanwhile, could potentially have two homegrown South Carolina presidential candidates in the race, a prospect that has already caused friction among the state’s GOP circles of supporters. A look at why so many political roads to 2024 will lead to South Carolina: THE DEMOCRATS Earlier this month, the Democratic National Committee approved its 2024 calendar, an effort to give a prominent voice to a more diverse electorate. President Joe Biden had endorsed a plan placing South Carolina first on the party’s calendar for the coming presidential cycle, followed by New Hampshire, Nevada, Michigan and Georgia. Biden’s recognition of the role South Carolina played in reviving his 2020 campaign, after less-than-stellar performances in earlier-voting states, has been clear since his victory celebration three years ago in February. “You brought me back,” Biden told supporters. His win built momentum that helped him plow through the Super Tuesday votes that followed. Last year, in a fundraiser for South Carolina Democrats, Vice President Kamala Harris offered her gratitude, saying, “We see how South Carolina Democrats set President Joe Biden and me on a path to the White House. … Thank you, South Carolina.” The Biden administration has keep close ties with the state, where Biden’s roots run deep and include family vacations to the state, as well as friendships with late Sens. Fritz Hollings and Strom Thurmond, and lawyer Dick Harpootlian, a former state party chairman who is now a state senator. On Monday, Harris will return to South Carolina to discuss the administration’s advancements on broadband internet expansion, a top priority of Rep. Jim Clyburn, one of Biden’s closest allies and the lone Democrat in South Carolina’s congressional delegation. Other Cabinet officials visited last year. While South Carolina Democrats have not won a statewide race since 2006, they have begun selling buttons, mugs and apparel flaunting the state’s new status, with the tagline “South Carolina Democrats Pick Winners.” But the party is undergoing a period of transition, with chair Trav Robertson announcing this past week he would not seek another term after six years in the job. Looking ahead, Robertson noted the regional financial impact that could be felt from the early position of South Carolina, where media markets — and the campaign advertising dollars spent in them — bleed into surrounding states. “We have long advocated that South Carolina’s position in this process has been extremely beneficial to North Carolina and Georgia and to Tennessee,” Robertson told The Associated Press. “The impact of this is going to be felt for a generation.” ___ HOMEGROWN GOP CANDIDATES Nikki Haley’s official launch to her 2024 presidential campaign, in downtown Charleston two weeks ago, was steeped in references to her six years as South Carolina’s governor. “It’s a great day in South Carolina!” Haley said, a nod to her gubernatorial catchphrase that she for a time required state Cabinet agencies to use when answering public phone lines. Haley, the first woman and Indian American to lead the state, also […]

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