SOUTH CAROLINA
Election type: primary
Date: February 29
Number of delegates: 63 [12 at-large, 7 PLEOs, 35 congressional district, 9 automatic/superdelegates]
Allocation method: proportional statewide and at the congressional district level
Threshold to qualify for delegates: 15%
2016: proportional primary
Delegate selection plan
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Changes since 2016
If one followed the 2016 series on the Republican process here at FHQ, then you may end up somewhat disappointed. The two national parties manage the presidential nomination process differently. The Republican National Committee is much less hands-on in regulating state and state party activity in the delegate selection process than the Democratic National Committee is. That leads to a lot of variation from state to state and from cycle to cycle on the Republican side. Meanwhile, the DNC is much more top down in its approach. Thresholds stay the same. It is a 15 percent barrier that candidates must cross in order to qualify for delegates. That is standard across all states. The allocation of delegates is roughly proportional. Again, that is applied to every state.
That does not mean there are no changes. The calendar has changed as have other facets of the process such as whether a state has a primary or a caucus.
South Carolina retained its protected position on the 2020 primary calendar among the earliest four states in February. One difference over 2016 is that South Carolina has an additional at-large delegate and three more superdelegates, raising the number of at-large delegates to 12 and automatic delegates from six to nine.
Thresholds
The standard 15 percent qualifying threshold applies both statewide and on the congressional district level.
Delegate allocation (at-large and PLEO delegates)
To win any at-large or PLEO (pledged Party Leader and Elected Officials) delegates a candidate must win 15 percent of the statewide vote. Only the votes of those candidates above the threshold will count for the purposes of the separate allocation of these two pools of delegates.
See New Hampshire synopsis for an example of how the delegate allocation math works for all categories of delegates.
Delegate allocation (congressional district delegates)
South Carolina's 35 congressional district delegates are split across seven congressional districts and have more variation across districts than in the previous three states to vote. That variation comes from the measure of Democratic strength South Carolina Democrats are using based on the results of the 2016 presidential election and the 2018 gubernatorial election in the Palmetto state. That method apportions delegates as follows...
CD1 - 6 delegates [Charleston]
CD2 - 4 delegates [Aiken, Clemson]
CD3 - 3 delegates* [Anderson]
CD4 - 4 delegates [Greenville]
CD5 - 5 delegates* [Rock Hill]
CD6 - 8 delegates [Columbia, Orangeburg]
CD7 - 5 delegates* [Florence, Myrtle Beach]
*Bear in mind that districts with odd numbers of national convention delegates are potentially important to winners (and those above the qualifying threshold) within those districts. Rounding up for an extra delegate initially requires less in those districts than in districts with even numbers of delegates.
Delegate allocation (automatic delegates/superdelegates)
Superdelegates are free to align with a candidate of their choice at a time of their choosing. While their support may be a signal to voters in their state (if an endorsement is made before voting in that state), superdelegates will only vote on the first ballot at the national convention if half of the total number of delegates -- pledged plus superdelegates -- have been pledged to one candidate. Otherwise, superdelegates are locked out of the voting unless 1) the convention adopts rules that allow them to vote or 2) the voting process extends to a second ballot. But then all delegates, not just superdelegates will be free to vote for any candidate.
[NOTE: All Democratic delegates are pledged and not bound to their candidates. They are to vote in good conscience for the candidate to whom they have been pledged, but technically do not have to. But they tend to because the candidates and their campaigns are involved in vetting and selecting their delegates through the various selection processes on the state level. Well, the good campaigns are anyway.]
Selection
All 54 pledged delegates in South Carolina will be selected at the state convention on May 30. District delegates will be chosen in district caucuses at the convention based on district results to the February primary while the full body will select both PLEO and then at-large delegates based on the statewide results.
Importantly, if a candidate drops out of the race before the selection of statewide delegates, then any statewide delegates allocated to that candidate will be reallocated to the remaining candidates. If Candidate X is in the race in late May when the South Carolina statewide delegate selection takes place but Candidate Y is not, then any statewide delegates allocated to Candidate Y in the February primary would be reallocated to Candidate X. [This same feature is not something that applies to district delegates.] This reallocation only applies if a candidate has fully dropped out. Candidates with suspended campaigns are still candidates and can fill those slots allocated them.
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