South Carolina Superintendent of Education election, 2018

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South Carolina Superintendent of Education
Election details
	Filing deadline: March 30, 2018
	Primary: June 12, 2018; Primary runoff: June 26, 2018 (if needed); General: November 6, 2018; Pre-election incumbent(s):; Molly Mitchell Spearman (Republican)
How to vote
	Poll times: 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.; Voting in South Carolina
Ballotpedia analysis
	Federal and state primary competitiveness; State executive elections in 2018; Impact of term limits in 2018; State government trifectas; State government triplexes; Ballotpedia's Election Analysis Hub, 2018
South Carolina; executive elections
	Governor; Lieutenant governor; Attorney general; Secretary of state; Treasurer; Comptroller; Agriculture commissioner; Superintendent of education

South Carolina held an election for superintendent of education on November 6, 2018. The candidate filing deadline was March 30, 2018.

Election results

General election

General election for South Carolina Superintendent of Education

Incumbent Molly Mitchell Spearman won election in the general election for South Carolina Superintendent of Education on November 6, 2018.

	Candidate	%	Votes
✔	Molly Mitchell Spearman (R)	98.1	998,057
	Other/Write-in votes	1.9	18,866

	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 1,016,923
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Withdrawn or disqualified candidates

James Robbins (Independent)
Israel Romero (D)

Democratic primary election

Democratic primary for South Carolina Superintendent of Education

Israel Romero advanced from the Democratic primary for South Carolina Superintendent of Education on June 12, 2018.

		Candidate
✔		Israel Romero

	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified.
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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Republican primary election

Republican primary for South Carolina Superintendent of Education

Incumbent Molly Mitchell Spearman advanced from the Republican primary for South Carolina Superintendent of Education on June 12, 2018.

		Candidate
✔		Molly Mitchell Spearman

	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified.
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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Candidates

Israel Romero unofficially withdrew from the general election after ballots had been finalized. His name still appeared on the ballot.^[1]

General election candidates

Molly Mitchell Spearman (Incumbent) (Republican Party) ✔

Did not make the ballot:

Israel Romero (Democratic Party)
James Robbins (Independent)

Write-in candidates:

Michele Phillips

Democratic primary candidates

Israel Romero ✔

Republican primary candidates

Molly Mitchell Spearman (Incumbent) ✔

State overview

Partisan control

This section details the partisan control of federal and state positions in South Carolina heading into the 2018 elections.

Congressional delegation

Following the 2016 elections, Republicans held both U.S. Senate seats in South Carolina.
Republicans held six of seven U.S. House seats in South Carolina.

State executives

As of September 2018, Republicans held eight of 16 state executive positions and the remaining eight positions were officially nonpartisan.
The governor of South Carolina was Republican Henry McMaster. The state held an election for governor and lieutenant governor on November 6, 2018.

State legislature

Republicans controlled both chambers of the South Carolina State Legislature. They had a 80-44 majority in the state House and a 27-19 majority in the state Senate.

Trifecta status

South Carolina was a Republican trifecta, meaning that the Republican Party controlled the state government. Henry McMaster (R) served as governor, while Republicans controlled the state legislature.

2018 elections

See also: South Carolina elections, 2018

South Carolina held elections for the following positions in 2018:

Demographics

Demographic data for South Carolina
	South Carolina	U.S.
Total population:	4,894,834	316,515,021
Land area (sq mi):	30,061	3,531,905
Race and ethnicity**
White:	67.2%	73.6%
Black/African American:	27.5%	12.6%
Asian:	1.4%	5.1%
Native American:	0.3%	0.8%
Pacific Islander:	0.1%	0.2%
Two or more:	2%	3%
Hispanic/Latino:	5.3%	17.1%
Education
High school graduation rate:	85.6%	86.7%
College graduation rate:	25.8%	29.8%
Income
Median household income:	$45,483	$53,889
Persons below poverty level:	22%	11.3%
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, "American Community Survey" (5-year estimates 2010-2015) Click here for more information on the 2020 census and here for more on its impact on the redistricting process in South Carolina. **Note: Percentages for race and ethnicity may add up to more than 100 percent because respondents may report more than one race and the Hispanic/Latino ethnicity may be selected in conjunction with any race. Read more about race and ethnicity in the census here.

As of July 2016, South Carolina's three largest cities were Charleston (pop. est. 135,000), Columbia (pop. est. 133,000), and North Charleston (pop. est. 111,000).^[2]

State election history

This section provides an overview of federal and state elections in South Carolina from 2000 to 2016. All data comes from the South Carolina Election Commission.

Historical elections

Presidential elections, 2000-2016

This chart shows the results of the presidential election in South Carolina every year from 2000 to 2016.

Election results (President of the United States), South Carolina 2000-2016
Year	First-place candidate	First-place candidate votes (%)	Second-place candidate	Second-place candidate votes (%)	Margin of victory (%)
2016	Donald Trump	54.9%	Hillary Clinton	40.7%	14.2%
2012	Mitt Romney	54.6%	Barack Obama	44.1%	10.5%
2008	John McCain	53.9%	Barack Obama	44.9%	9.0%
2004	George W. Bush	58.0%	John Kerry	40.9%	17.1%
2000	George W. Bush	56.8%	Al Gore	40.9%	15.9%

U.S. Senate elections, 2000-2016

This chart shows the results of U.S. Senate races in South Carolina from 2000 to 2016. Every state has two Senate seats, and each seat goes up for election every six years. The terms of the seats are staggered so that roughly one-third of the seats are up every two years.

Election results (U.S. Senator), South Carolina 2000-2016
Year	First-place candidate	First-place candidate votes (%)	Second-place candidate	Second-place candidate votes (%)	Margin of victory (%)
2016	Tim Scott	60.6%	Thomas Dixon	36.9%	23.7%
2014^[3]	Tim Scott	61.1%	Joyce Dickerson	37.1%	24.0%
2014	Lindsey Graham	54.3%	Brad Hutto	38.8%	15.5%
2010	Jim DeMint	61.5%	Alvin Greene	27.7%	33.8%
2008	Lindsey Graham	57.5%	Bob Conley	42.3%	15.2%
2004	Jim DeMint	53.7%	Inez Tenenbaum	44.1%	9.6%
2002	Lindsey Graham	54.4%	Alex Sanders	44.2%	10.2%

Gubernatorial elections, 2000-2016

This chart shows the results of the four gubernatorial elections held between 2000 and 2016. Gubernatorial elections are held every four years in South Carolina.

Election results (Governor), South Carolina 2000-2016
Year	First-place candidate	First-place candidate votes (%)	Second-place candidate	Second-place candidate votes (%)	Margin of victory (%)
2014	Nikki Haley	55.9%	Vincent Sheheen	41.4%	14.5%
2010	Nikki Haley	51.4%	Vincent Sheheen	46.9%	4.5%
2006	Mark Sanford	55.1%	Kerry Healey	44.8%	10.3%
2002	Mark Sanford	52.8%	Jim Hodges	47.0%	5.8%

Congressional delegation, 2000-2016

This chart shows the number of Democrats and Republicans who were elected to represent South Carolina in the U.S. House from 2000 to 2016. Elections for U.S. House seats are held every two years.

Congressional delegation, South Carolina 2000-2016
Year	Republicans	Republicans (%)	Democrats	Democrats (%)	Balance of power
2016	6	85.7%	1	14.3%	R+5
2014	6	85.7%	1	14.3%	R+5
2012	6	85.7%	1	14.3%	R+5
2010	5	83.3%	1	16.7%	R+4
2008	4	66.7%	2	33.3%	R+2
2006	4	66.7%	2	33.3%	R+2
2004	4	66.7%	2	33.3%	R+2
2002	4	66.7%	2	33.3%	R+2
2000	4	66.7%	2	33.3%	R+2

Trifectas, 1992-2017

A state government trifecta occurs when one party controls both chambers of the state legislature and the governor's office.

South Carolina Party Control: 1992-2024
No Democratic trifectas • Twenty-two years of Republican trifectas
Scroll left and right on the table below to view more years.

Year	92	93	94	95	96	97	98	99	00	01	02	03	04	05	06	07	08	09	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	24
Governor	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	D	D	D	D	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R
Senate	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R
House	D	D	D	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R

Recent news

The link below is to the most recent stories in a Google news search for the terms South Carolina superintendent of education election 2018. These results are automatically generated from Google. Ballotpedia does not curate or endorse these articles.

South Carolina Superintendent of Education election, 2018 - Google News

External links

Suggest a link

South Carolina superintendent of education official website

Footnotes

[PostWithdraws-1] The Post and Courier, "SC Democrats’ education superintendent candidate withdraws after conviction reports," October 17, 2018

[2] South Carolina Demographics, "South Carolina Cities by Population," accessed September 5, 2018

[special-3] Special election

[1]

[2]

[3]

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