For Democrats in South Carolina and around the country, the numbers are stark — and daunting.
In the Palmetto State, Republicans have controlled every statewide elected office for 20 years and now command supermajorities in both chambers of the state legislature. Nationally, they hold the presidency and both houses of Congress.
And since President Donald Trump’s reelection last November, Democrats’ polling numbers have plummeted to their lowest in a generation, with only 27% of Americans approving of the party (compared to 39% for Republicans), according to a March NBC News poll. What’s worse, Democrats say, is the continuing erosion of support among working class and male voters of all ages, races and ethnicities.
Looking at those numbers, some South Carolina Democrats say it’s time for their party to take a long look in the mirror. For too long, they say, national Democrats have shrunk from the political fight — and allowed themselves to be defined by their Republican opponents.
“Right now, the Republicans say Democrats are calling for violence in the streets,” Charleston Democratic Sen. Ed Sutton said. “There ain’t a single damn elected Democrat in South Carolina who’s calling for violence — not one. We’ve got to do a better job of defining who we are and what we stand for.”
But to do that, he argued, national Democrats will have to let go of the language and litmus tests that have pushed the party’s traditional working class base into the GOP.
“The message that plays in New York and California doesn’t play here in South Carolina,” Sutton said. “The party needs to get back to talking more like working people and less like college professors.”
Even more, he said, it’s about meeting voters where they are.
“The average voter is just trying to pay the bills,” he said. “They’re not looking for a TED Talk on pronouns. Talking down to people and then asking them to vote for you just doesn’t work.”
A moderate Democratic majority
Winthrop University political scientist and pollster Scott Huffmon says there’s recent evidence to support the idea that Democrats would benefit from a less ideological approach.
“In our latest Winthrop poll, we asked people what kind of party they prefer,” Huffmon said. “And a number of Democrats said they’d like a more moderate party.”
Specifically, the poll found 80% of S.C. Democrats would favor a party that was somewhere between “moderately liberal” and “moderately conservative,” with only 13% choosing “extreme liberal.”
Those numbers, Huffmon noted, are primarily driven by Black voters, who tend to be more religious and culturally moderate than the average national Democrat.
“When it comes to some of those thorny social issues nationally, that makes it a little more tricky for state politics,” Huffmon said. “[The] old maxim that ‘all politics is local’ is no longer true. In fact, it’s the opposite of true. Even local politics is national now.”
Richland County Democratic State Rep. Jermaine Johnson, who’s announced he’s considering a run for governor next year, said he sees the same issues among his constituents.
“The top of the Democratic Party isn’t listening to the bottom of the Democratic Party,” Johnson said. “Most people are just working class people struggling the way my family has struggled, and the national [Democratic] brand has gotten away from everyday citizens.”
To solve that problem, he said, state Democrats will have to start communicating their values much more clearly.
“We’ve done a horrible job of distancing ourselves from the national political narrative,” Johnson said. “People in South Carolina don’t look at us as regular Democrats going to church and work and school. They look at us as AOC (Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez), Bernie Sanders, Joe Biden, [and] that’s not who we are.”
In particular, he says, Democrats need to refocus on core issues that every voter cares about, and put less emphasis on social issues.
“I want to talk about why that pothole’s been in your road for years, and why our schools and infrastructure are crumbling,” Johnson said. “Those are issues we need to be addressing, not DEI [diversity, equity and inclusion] or abortion or which bathroom I have to use.”
In the trenches
State Democratic campaign professionals agree their candidates need room to diverge from the national party on some issues, though they stress the nuts and bolts of making that strategy work.
One veteran Democratic operative was blunt about the challenge, particularly in a fragmented media environment where the audience for TikTok videos and podcasts dwarfs that of traditional newspapers and TV.
“We’re not talking to people where they are,” he said. “And on the few occasions when we do, we’re usually talking about somebody else’s problem.”
Political consultant and former S.C. Democratic Party Chair Trav Robertson said he sees many of the same challenges, but keeps the focus on individual campaigns and candidates.
“There’s no question that in today’s world, everything is integrated and intertwined,” Robertson said. “But if you’ve got very good candidates and a good organization, you can still cut through that stuff and communicate with your voters. Is that difficult? Yes. Is it impossible? No.”
What’s more, he says, it’s important to not lose sight of traditional Democratic commitments in the process.
“We’re the party that stands up for everyone’s rights and everyone’s freedoms,” Robertson said. “The problem is to not throw out the baby with the bathwater.”
But regardless of the messaging nuances, he said, it still comes down to candidates, campaigns, and a willingness to push back on the other side’s narrative — and that’s what most needs to change.
“At the end of the day, Republicans do a better job of branding Democrats,” he said. “And too many Democrats don’t fight back.”
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(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by PostX News and is published from a syndicated feed.)
