Darlington County, South Carolina is a largely rural county located in the Pee Dee region of the state. Its politics are historically tied to the Democratic party, and Democrats have traditionally held elected offices at the local level. The current Sheriff of Darlington County is J. Wayne Byrd, who has held the office since 1998. The Darlington County Council oversees county government and consists of seven members from seven single-member districts; each district elects one member to serve a four-year term on the council. At the state level, sitting US Senator Lindsey Graham represents South Carolina in Congress, as well as US Representatives Tom Rice and Jeff Duncan.
The political climate in Darlington County, SC is leaning conservative.
In Darlington County, SC 47.0% of the people voted Democrat in the last presidential election, 51.9% voted for the Republican Party, and the remaining 1.1% voted Independent.
In the last Presidential election, Darlington county remained Republican, 51.9% to 47.0%.
Darlington county voted Republican in five of the last six Presidential elections (2012 went Democratic).
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index
Darlington County, SC is leaning conservative.
Florence Metro Area is leaning conservative.
South Carolina is somewhat conservative.
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index is based on recent voting in national elections, federal campaign contributions by local residents, and consumer personality profiles.
VoteWord™
Displaying 20 years of Presidential voting, visualized in one word.
Darlington, South Carolina: r r r d r r
How It Works:
Here at BestPlaces, we were looking at the voting patterns since the 2000 election and realized that we could express the results of each election as one letter. R if the Republican Party candidate won, D for the Democrat and I for the Independent. The six elections (2000, 2004, 2008, 2012, 2016, 2020) would be expressed as six-letter word (R R D R R).
Then we went a little further and added the dimension of magnitude. If the difference of victory was greater than 10 percent, the letter is upper case, and lower case if the difference was less than 10 percent. This allows us to see interesting voting patterns at just a glance.
Here's the VoteWord for Iowa d r d d r. In the last six elections the state has been closely contested, voting narrowly for the Republican Party candidate in 2016 and 2020 after voting for the Democratic Party in 2008 and 2012. Virginia (r r d d d D) has voted for the Democratic Party in the last three elections.
Individual Campaign Contributions in Darlington County, SC
In the last 4 years (2018-2021), there were 358 contributions totaling $28,517 to the Democratic Party and liberal campaigns, averaging $80 per contribution.
In the last 4 years, there were 393 contributions totaling $80,580 to the Republican Party and conservative campaigns, averaging $205 per contribution.
(source: Federal Election Commission)