Ex-state Rep. Ralph Norman appears to have won the GOP primary runoff to succeed Mick Mulvaney in South Carolina’s 5th Congressional District, but there will be an automatic recount. As of Wednesday, Norman holds a 50.3-49.7 lead over state House Speaker Pro Tempore Tommy Pope, a margin of 200 votes. State law requires an automatic recount for contests with a margin of less than 1 percent, and Pope has not yet conceded, but he doesn’t sound incredibly optimistic. If Norman’s lead holds, he’ll face Democrat Archie Parnell in the June 20 general election for this Rock Hill-area seat, which backed Trump 57-39.
In the two weeks before the primary and the runoff, this contest turned into an intense but familiar battle between tea party groups, who backed Norman, and the more business-friendly organizations behind Pope. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce ran ads for Pope, while the anti-tax Club for Growth aired spots assailing Pope as a “backdoor" supporter of Obamacare. Norman also had the support of ex-Sen. Jim DeMint, who was recently fired as head of the Heritage Foundation; former Gov.-turned U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley; and North Carolina Rep. Mark Meadows, the head of the nihilistic Freedom Caucus. If Norman gets the GOP nomination, he’ll have a strong chance to avenge his 2006 defeat to then-Rep. John Spratt, who beat him 57-43 during that year’s Democratic wave.