The 1992 United States presidential election in South Carolina took place on November 3, 1992, as part of the 1992 United States presidential election. Voters chose 8 representatives, or electors to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president.
South Carolina was won by incumbent President George H. W. Bush (R-Texas) with 48.02% of the popular vote over Governor Bill Clinton (D-Arkansas) with 39.88%. Businessman Ross Perot (I-Texas) finished in third, with 11.55% of the popular vote. Clinton ultimately won the national vote, defeating both incumbent President Bush and Perot.
This election was an example of South Carolina's transformation from one of the strongest Democratic states in the country to a reliably Republican one. South Carolina had voted for the Democratic nominee in every election from 1880 (the first election after Reconstruction) through 1944, always by wide margins and usually giving the Democrat over 90% of the vote. After it voted for Strom Thurmond in 1948, it returned to the Democratic fold to vote for Adlai Stevenson twice and for Kennedy in 1960, albeit narrowly.
Background
With the exception of Jimmy Carter in the 1976 election South Carolina had not supported the Democratic presidential nominee since the 1960 presidential election. Republicans accounted for around 75% of registered voters in the 1980s. Republican Governor Carroll A. Campbell Jr. won reelection in the 1990 election.
Primary
Tom Harkin withdrew after the South Carolina primary.
General
At the time of the election, Clinton was only the fifth Democrat to win without carrying South Carolina, after Andrew Jackson, Martin van Buren, Harry S. Truman, and Lyndon B. Johnson. As of the 2020 presidential election, this is the last election in which Edgefield County voted for a Democratic presidential candidate.
This is the first election in which any South Carolina county cast more than one hundred thousand votes, namely Greenville and Richland.
44.4% of the voting age population participated in the election, an increase from 38.9% in 1988, which was the second-lowest in the nation only ahead of Hawaii. With 48.02% of the popular vote, South Carolina would prove to be Bush's second strongest state in the 1992 election after Mississippi. South Carolina was the best state for Howard Phillips in terms of his percentage of the total vote.
60% of white voters supported Bush, 26% supported Clinton, and 14% supported Perot. 91% of black voters supported Clinton, 7% supported Bush, and 1% supported Perot. 44% of male voters supported Bush, 40% supported Clinton, and 16% supported Perot. Bush, contrary to national trends where Clinton did better among women, received the support of 52% of female voters while Clinton received 40% and Perot received 8%.
The Republicans gained six seats in the South Carolina House of Representatives and four seats in the South Carolina Senate. The Republicans gained one seat in the state's U.S. House delegation. Incumbent Democratic U.S. Senator Fritz Hollings won reelection in a concurrent election.
Results
Results by county
Counties that flipped from Republican to Democratic
- Abbeville
- Calhoun
- Chester
- Chesterfield
- Colleton
- Darlington
- Dillon
- Edgefield
- Georgetown
- Lancaster
- Richland
Results by congressional district
Bush won 5 of South Carolina's 6 congressional districts, including two districts held by Democrats.