Candidate Spotlight

November 2008 Elections

While South Carolina women offered for federal, state and local offices in record numbers during the 2008 election cycle, fewer than hoped succeeded at the polls in November. 

Women made small gains in the South Carolina House of Representatives, increasing their numbers from 13 to 17, still down from a peak of 20 in 1992.  The list of winners includes 10 incumbent representatives and 6 newcomers:

Candidate Seat Party
Anne Peterson-Hutto
Chandra Dillard
Deborah Long
Cathy Harvin*
Gilda Cobb-Hunter*
Jenny Horne
Joan Brady*
Nikki Haley*
Rita Allison
Shannon Erickson*
Vida Miller*
Wendy Nanney
J. Anne Parks*
Laurie Slade Funderburk*
Patsy G. Knight*
Annette D. Young*
Denny Neilson*
House District 115
House District 23
House District 45
House District 64
House District 66
House District 94
House District 78
House District 87
House District 36
House District 124
House District 108
House District 22
House District 12
House District 52
House District 97
House District 98
House District 56
D
D
R
D
D
R
R
R
R
R
D
R
D
D
D
R
D

* indicates incumbent re-elected to additional term.

Women were elected across South Carolina to local offices including solicitor and the first female mayor for Cayce, Elise Partin.

No women were elected to the South Carolina Senate, returning that chamber to an all-male bastion not seen in more than 30 years.  South Carolina is also the only state in the nation lacking women in its senate.

The Southeastern Institute for Women in Politics, a non-profit organized to attract, encourage and train women to run and win, delivered hundreds of thousands of email messages about available candidates in an effort to create visibility for female candidates.  Biographies and responses to specific questions were posted on the Institute’s website to help educate South Carolina voters regarding choices.

Members of the Institute’s board of directors vowed to move into the 2010 and 2012 election cycles aggressively, beginning with recruitment and training as early as February, 2009.