1910 South Carolina Democratic gubernatorial primary runoff
September 13, 1910 (1910-09-13)
 
Candidate Cole Blease C. C. Featherstone
Party Democratic Democratic
Popular vote 56,250 50,605
Percentage 52.6% 47.4%
Governor of South Carolina before election

Martin Frederick Ansel
Democratic

 Elected Governor of South Carolina

Coleman Livingston Blease
Democratic

The 1910 South Carolina gubernatorial election was held on November 8, 1910, to select the governor of the state of South Carolina. Coleman Livingston Blease won the Democratic primary and ran unopposed in the general election to become the 90th governor of South Carolina.

Democratic primary

By 1910, the South Carolina Democratic Party had split into two factions: the well-to-do farmers with ties to Clemson College, and the tenant farmers who largely did not benefit from many of the proposals instituted by Benjamin Tillman and his followers. Many of these poor farmers escaped the fields to the relative prosperity of a mill town. Coleman Livingston Blease, a lawyer from Newberry, sought to portray himself as the candidate for the downtrodden and oppressed white man who had not benefited from the Tillman era. Blease and prohibitionist candidate Claudius Cyprian Featherstone emerged as the front runners in the Democratic primary on August 30. Featherstone and his conservative allies attacked Blease for his coarse behavior, similar to A.C. Haskell's attacks on Tillman in the gubernatorial election of 1890, but once again the attacks only strengthened the candidacy of the antagonist. On September 13, Blease won by just over 5,000 votes in the runoff to essentially become the next governor of South Carolina because there was no opposition in the general election.

Democratic Primary
Candidate Votes %
Coleman Livingston Blease 33,411 31.7
Claudius Cyprian Featherstone 30,045 28.5
Thomas Gordon McLeod 25,263 24.0
John Gardiner Richards, Jr. 9,770 9.3
F.H. Hyatt 5,436 5.1
John T. Duncan 1,436 1.4
Democratic Primary Runoff
Candidate Votes % ±%
Coleman Livingston Blease 56,250 52.6 +20.9
Claudius Cyprian Featherstone 50,605 47.4 +18.9

General election

The general election was held on November 8, 1910, and Coleman Livingston Blease was elected the next governor of South Carolina without opposition. Being a non-presidential election and few contested races, turnout was much less than the previous gubernatorial election.

South Carolina Gubernatorial Election, 1910[1][2][3]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Democratic Coleman Livingston Blease 30,832 99.8 -0.2
Socialist F. N. U. Thompson 70 0.2 +0.2
Majority 30,762 99.6
Turnout 30,902
Democratic hold
  65+% won by Blease

See also

References

  1. ↑ Glashan, Roy R. (1979). "South Carolina gubernatorial elections". American Governors and Gubernatorial Elections, 1775-1978. Meckler Books. pp. 284–285. ISBN 0-930466-17-9.
  2. ↑ "SC Governor, 1910". Our Campaigns. Retrieved April 2, 2019.
  3. ↑ The World Almanac and Encyclopedia, 1911. New York: The Press Publishing Co. (The New York World). 1910. p. 691.
  • Jordan, Frank E. The Primary State: A History of the Democratic Party in South Carolina, 1876–1962. pp. 26–28.
  • Lander, Ernest McPherson Jr. (1970). A History of South Carolina, 1865–1960. University of South Carolina Press. p. 49. ISBN 0-87249-169-2.
  • "Official Count By State Executive Committee". The News and Courier. September 3, 1910. p. 2.
  • "Blease Has Majority of 5,645". The News and Courier. September 18, 1910. p. 1.
Preceded by
1908		 South Carolina gubernatorial elections Succeeded by
1912
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