COLUMBIA, South Carolina — Christale Spain, a longtime party member, was elected Saturday as chair of the South Carolina Democratic Party, becoming the first black woman to lead the organization in what will be the first state of Democratic presidential vote in 2024.
Spain was chosen during the party’s convention on Saturday in Colombia. She takes office in a wave of state Democratic party changes by 2024. With her election, and thanks to the party’s recent revamp of the primary schedule, four of the five states in which Democrats will vote first next year: Georgia, Michigan, Nevada. and South Carolina now have black women chairing their state parties.
Putting the most diverse states at the top of the voting calendar was a priority for President Joe Biden, who recently advanced his own re-election bid and pushed to carry South Carolina, a state in which he won big in 2020, to the top of the nomination list. calendar.
Calling her victory «a historic moment for our party, for women,» Spain pledged to implement «year-round voter turnout» and mobilization efforts, hoping to win more state victories for the party, as that the nation’s attention is focused on South Carolina. for the 2024 cycle.
«Now I know from all the experience, all the volunteering, all the jobs I’ve had, the importance of this role, who sets the stage, who implements the strategy, so we can win,» Spain told reporters afterwards.
Black women are the main drivers of the Democratic electorate, particularly in South Carolina. Spain takes over from Trav Robertson, who has led the party since 2017 and announced earlier this year that he would not seek another term.
Spain was endorsed by a host of party leaders, including Rep. Jim Clyburn, for whom Spain previously worked in election service and outreach in his district office. He also received endorsements from former party leaders such as Robertson and Jaime Harrison, who preceded Robertson as state chairman and currently lead the Democratic National Committee.
In a statement, Harrison said that Spain «has the experience, judgment and strategic vision to get South Carolina Democrats back to winning ways, and I know she will be an excellent president.»
Spain halted the efforts of two other candidates, who withdrew after early voting showed massive support for Spain. Brandon Upson, a progressive Democrat who chairs the state party’s Black Caucus and advised Tom Steyer’s 2020 presidential campaign in South Carolina, said he would step down «for the sake of unity» in the party as he prepares to 2024.
Catherine Fleming Bruce, an author who unsuccessfully sought the Democrats’ 2022 nomination against Republican Sen. Tim Scott, also launched a bid.
Spain, 46, has years of experience in South Carolina political spheres, serving as political director for Sen. Bernie Sanders’ 2016 presidential campaign and as state director for Sen. Cory Booker’s 2020 White House bid. For two years, he worked for the Clyburn Borough Office, focusing on constituent service and outreach.
He also founded 46 Hope Road, a political action committee aimed at energizing voters who had been inactive since Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign, and worked on black voter engagement for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee for 2022 midterm elections.
While the national prominence of the South Carolina Democratic Party has increased, most recently when the Democratic National Committee made South Carolina the first voting state in its 2024 presidential primary schedule, the South Carolina Democrats they have struggled to achieve electoral victories at many levels of office.
With no victories in state elections since 2006, Democrats hold just one of the state’s seven House seats. The party last won a Senate race in 1998, and Jimmy Carter was the last Democrat to win the state in a presidential election.
There have been some successes. In 2018, Joe Cunningham became the first Democrat to flip a House seat from red to blue in South Carolina in decades, though he lost his re-election bid two years later.
Opening his final convention as president, Robertson took a look at the party’s infighting, but expressed confidence that the party could have future successes.
“We may fight like hell, but we will always be a family,” he said.