SC-04: Despite being badly outspent, former state Sen. Lee Bright earned a place in the June 26 GOP runoff for this safely red Spartanburg seat with 25 percent of the vote. Wealthy state Sen. William Timmons appears to have edged state Rep. Dan Hamilton 19.2-18.6 to win the other runoff spot, though there will likely be an automatic recount, and the Associated Press has not yet called the race. Former Spartanburg County party chair Josh Kimbrell, whom the radical anti-tax Club for Growth endorsed, took fourth with 11.
Bright has attracted some ardent far-right supporters during his time in South Carolina politics, as well as some prominent enemies. Bright once proposed that South Carolina should get its own currency, and he also tried to pass a state version of North Carolina's notorious bathroom bill. Bright also ardently defended keeping the Confederate flag flying on the grounds of the statehouse. In 2014, Bright challenged Sen. Lindsey Graham for renomination and took second place with 15 percent of the vote, was well behind Graham's 56 percent.
Two years later, Bright lost renomination 52-48 after he was squeezed from both the left and the right. The Conservation Voters of South Carolina went after him, while the South Carolina Chamber of Commerce ran ads against Bright on conservative talk radio after he voted against policies like what the Greenville News described as "tort reform, road-funding plans and aid to flood-stricken farmers." Then-Gov. Nikki Haley also campaigned against him, saying she took issue with his opposition to ethics reform.
Timmons, who loaned his campaign $885,000 though mid-May, has already started arguing that Bright is "a good man, but he is not the right fit for Washington — that might be putting it lightly." That may not be a winning message with GOP primary voters, but Timmonds will have the resources to broadcast it. Bright himself is sticking with his old playbook and casting the runoff as a battle between a "conservative record and an establishment-backed candidate in the mold of Lindsey Graham."