Population (2000) 668,668 Cook PVI R+14 | Median income 42,915 | |
 | ||
Current Representative Joe Wilson (R–Springdale, Lexington County) Ethnicity 69.5% White
26.4% Black
1.2% Asian
3.3% Hispanic
0.3% Native American
0.1% other | ||
The 2nd Congressional District of South Carolina is a congressional district in central and southwestern South Carolina. The district spans from Columbia to the South Carolina side of the Augusta, Georgia metropolitan area.
From 1993 through 2012, it included all of Lexington, Jasper, Hampton, Allendale and Barnwell counties; most of Richland and Beaufort counties and parts of Aiken, Calhoun and Orangeburg counties.
It was made more compact in the 2010 round of redistricting, and now comprises all of Lexington, Aiken and Barnwell counties, most of Richland County, and part of Orangeburg County. Besides Columbia (60 percent of which is in the district), other major cities in the district include Aiken and North Augusta.
The district was defined in 1933, following South Carolina losing a seat in apportionment as a result of the 1930 Census showing state population loss. Before that time, much of its territory had been within the 6th district.
As a Columbia-based district from 1933 to the early 1990s, it was a fairly compact, urbanized district in the central part of the state. As a result of the 1990 census, the state legislature worked to redefine some of the districts. In a deal between Republicans and Democrats, the 6th congressional district was redefined to incorporate most of the black residents in the area and create a majority-minority district. The 2nd district was expanded to the south and west to gain other, mostly white residents in compensation.
Since 1965 the 2nd district has been held by the Republican Party, made up of white conservatives in the late 20th-century realignment of political parties in the South. In the decades after the Civil War and before disenfranchisement in 1895 under the new state constitution, members of the Republican Party in South Carolina and the South were mostly African Americans, including many freedmen enfranchised due to Republican support for amendments for emancipation, citizenship and the franchise. After white Democrats regained control of state governments across the South, in the late 19th century, they passed new constitutions from 1890 to 1908 to disenfranchise blacks, excluding them totally from the political process. The Republican Party was crippled in the region and nearly comatose.
As a result of the Civil Rights Movement, blacks gained congressional passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which provided for federal enforcement of their constitutional rights. That year, the 2nd district's second-term Democratic congressman, Albert Watson, switched parties and enrolled with the Republicans. He was the first of mostly white Democrats to switch parties.
The 2nd district was one of the earliest districts of South Carolina whose voters supported a Republican candidate for national office in the late 20th century realignment of white conservative voters in the state. The district's best-known congressman, Floyd Spence, represented the district for more than 30 years. He was chairman of the House Armed Services Committee from 1995 to 2001, when he died a few months after being elected to a 16th term. He was succeeded in a special election by one of his former aides, state senator Joe Wilson.
Wilson has since been reelected seven times. In the most recent election, held on November 4, 2014, Wilson earned almost 62.5% of the vote against former Democrat Phil Black and Labor Party candidate Harold Geddings. The district is more than 69% white.