South Carolina Green Party

South Carolina Green Party
Founded 2002
Headquarters PO Box 5341, Columbia SC 29250
Ideology Green,
Progressive,
Social liberalism or Civil libertarianism
National affiliation Green Party of the United States
Colors Green
Website
www.scgreenparty.org

The South Carolina Green Party, Also known as South Carolina's Progressive Reform Party according to its official website, is a ballot-qualified political party in the state of South Carolina. It is the state affiliate party of the national Green Party of the United States.

History

The party had been the South Carolina affiliate of the Natural Law Party but was taken over by the Green Party after the Natural Law Party officially disbanded its national organization in 2002. The party has been ballot qualified throughout its affiliation with the Green Party.

Since its founding, the party has regularly participated in elections for state, local and national office, most notably in the 2010 elections. The party has one elected official, Eugene Platt, who has served for many years in a non-partisan position on the James Island Public Service District.

Leadership

The South Carolina Green Party is administered by a steering committee. As of June 2016, the current members are:

2010 Elections

In May 2010, the party nominated Friends of the Earth regional coordinator Tom Clements to run for the US Senate later that year. He ran against incumbent Republican Jim DeMint and military veteran and Democrat Alvin Greene as well as several write-in candidates.[1]

Clements raised more than $50,000 by mid-October.[2] Incumbent Jim DeMint reported more than $3 million raised to date. Democrat Alvin Greene reported no fundraising activities during the entire campaign. A Winthrop University poll conducted between October 5 and 10 with 741 likely South Carolina voters found Clements running second with 12.2% of the vote against 11.2% for Democrat Alvin Greene and 58.3% for incumbent Jim DeMint.[3][4]

Clements campaigned around the state from June through November 1, appearing at NAACP forums, stump meetings, editorial conferences and other public events. The campaign financed TV and radio advertisements in the Columbia, Charleston and Pee Dee regions during the two weeks prior to the election.

Clements received 121,472 in the final tally, 9.22% of the total 1,318,794 votes cast.[5] This is the best result for a candidate who was not a Democrat or Republican since Strom Thurmond won as a write-in candidate in 1954.[6] Clements' result also exceeds the previous best result for a progressive statewide candidate: Ralph Nader received 20,297 votes for President from South Carolina in 2000.[7]

Other notable results include the 1,186 votes earned by Eugene Platt running in SC House District 115. D.C. Swinton running in SC House District 24 as a Green/Democratic fusion candidate while a student at Winthrop University earned 3,390 votes or 25% of the total. Christopher Jones received 11.76% in a two-person race in SC House District 74. Leslie Minerd and Dorthea Bull each received around 2%. Gubernatorial candidate Morgan Reeves received 1.16%. Against local prosecutor Trey Gowdy and an array of right wing minor parties C. Faye Walter’s vote in the 4th Congressional District was 1.18%. Robert Dobbs similarly earned about 1.16% running in the 1st Congressional district against six other candidates. Nammu Mohammed received about 1% of the vote against Democratic Congressional Whip Jim Clyburn of the 6th District.[8]

Presidential nominee results

Year Nominee Votes
1996 Ralph Nader Not on ballot
2000 Ralph Nader[9] 20,279 (1.47%)
2004 David Cobb 1,488 (0.10%)
2008 Cynthia McKinney 4,461 (0.23%)
2012 Jill Stein 5,446 (0.28%)
2016 Jill Stein 12,945 (0.62%)

See also

References

  1. ↑ Activist going Green to target DeMint The State newspaper, August 8, 2010
  2. ↑ "2010 House and Senate Campaign Finance for South Carolina". fec.gov. Retrieved October 18, 2010.. Next F.E.C. reports are due October 15, 2010.
  3. ↑ Winthrop Poll Shows Haley Ahead and Other Opinions by S.C. Voters Winthrop Poll, October 13, 2010
  4. ↑ Winthrop Poll Shows Haley Ahead and Other Opinions by S.C. Voters Winthrop Poll Questions and Answers. Page 2. October 13, 2010
  5. ↑ "2010 General Election RSS : South Carolina State Election Commission". Enr-scvotes.org. Retrieved 2015-12-25.
  6. ↑
  7. ↑ Archived December 3, 2008, at the Wayback Machine.
  8. ↑ "2010 General Election RSS : South Carolina State Election Commission". Enr-scvotes.org. Retrieved 2015-12-25.
  9. ↑ In 2000, Nader was the nominee of the United Citizens Party in South Carolina and the Green Party of the United States nationally
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