Democrat Keishan Scott defeated his Republican rival Bill Oden in a landslide win for a seat in the South Carolina House of Representatives.
Scott, who is 24 and a member of Bishopville City Council, secured over 70 percent of the more than 3,600 votes cast in Tuesday’s special election.
Oden, a former chair of Sumter County GOP, took just over 29 percent of the vote, according to unofficial results from the state’s election commission.
Why It Matters
Scott’s win marks the latest victory for the Democratic Party, which will now have 36 seats in South Carolina’s state House.
The Democrats previously defeated the GOP in a special election for an Iowa State House seat in April, in what the Democratic Party hailed as a “clear rebuke of Trump.”
What To Know
In Scott’s victory speech, he said: “This victory is definitely not mine alone. It belongs to all the people of this District 50 that got out to exercise your right to vote.
“I want to say thank you from the bottom of my heart for your vote of confidence into me.”
Scott added: “Every day that I go to the Statehouse that I will carry the needs of the people.”
Scott is the youngest person elected to the Statehouse since Representative Brandon Newton, a Lancaster Republican, who won at the age of 22 in 2016.
In an endorsement video posted to Scott’s Facebook, U.S. Representative Jim Clyburn underscored the importance of Tuesday’s election, calling it a must-win for Democrats.
“Will be the beginning of a Democratic comeback here in South Carolina,” Clyburn said. “Irrespective of where you live, how old you may be, whatever gender you may be, this is about the future of Democrats in South Carolina.”
Oden, who recently finished leading the Sumter County Republican Party for four years, acknowledged in a text to the Daily Gazette that he “lost tonight.”
“God has something better in store for me,” he said.
What People Are Saying
The Democratic National Committee said Scott’s victory extends the party’s “overperformance streak” this year.
“As long as Trump and MAGA Republicans peddle an out-of-touch agenda that puts billionaires’ interests first and takes away health care from millions of Americans, they will continue to sink and lose,” DNC chairperson Ken Martin said in a statement.
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