South Carolina's major political organizations are the Democratic and Republican parties. From the end of Reconstruction, the Democratic Party dominated state politics. Dissatisfaction with the national party's position on civil rights in 1948 led to the formation of the States' Rights Democrat faction, whose candidate, South Carolina Governor J. Strom Thurmond, carried the state in 1948. Thurmond's subsequent switch to the Republicans while in the US Senate was a big boost for the state's Republican Party, which since 1964 has captured South Carolina's eight electoral votes in eight of the nine presidential elections. In 2000, Republican George W. Bush received 57% of the vote to Democrat Al Gore's 41%. Independent candidate Ralph Nader garnered 2% of the popular vote.
South Carolina's US senators are Democrat Ernest F. Hollings, who was last reelected in 1998, and Republican Lindsey Graham, elected in 2002. Senator Hollings announced in August 2003 that he would retire at the end of his term. Republican Strom Thurmond, who was reelected in 1996 at the age of 93—was the oldest senator in the country's history. Thurmond died in June 2003 at the age of 100. As of 2003, there were two Democrats and four Republicans serving as US representatives. The state senate had 21 Democrats and 25 Republicans; while in the state house there were 73 Republicans and 51 Democrats as of mid-2003. In 2002 voters elected a Republican, Mark Sanford, to the governor's office.
Voters do not register according to political party in South Carolina. Instead, at primary elections, they simply take an oath that they have not participated in another primary. In 2002 there were 2,047,368 registered voters and the state held eight electoral votes for the 2000 presidential election.