South Carolina gubernatorial election, 1990
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Carroll A. Campbell, Jr.
Republican
Carroll A. Campbell, Jr.
Republican
The 1990 South Carolina gubernatorial election was held on November 6, 1990 to select the governor of the state of South Carolina. Governor Carroll A. Campbell, Jr., the popular Republican incumbent, handily defeated Democrat Theo Mitchell to become only the second governor at the time elected to a second consecutive four-year term.
Ever since the passage of the Voting Rights Act and other civil rights legislation in the 1960s, black participation in the Democratic Party grew while the role of the whites diminished. This became evident in the 1988 U.S. Presidential election when Jesse Jackson, a black civil rights activist from Greenville, was chosen by South Carolina Democrats as their nominee for President. His nomination hastened the exodus of whites from the Democratic Party, but it also gave hope to blacks across the state that they could win a statewide office. Theo Mitchell, a black state senator from Greenville, sought to capitalize on the changing demographics of the state Democratic primary by indicating his intentions of seeking the governorship in April 1989.
In January 1990, Mitchell formally announced his candidacy for governor at a bus station named for him in Greenville. State Senator Ernie Passailaigue of Charleston entered the lackluster race in March 1990, but was widely unknown outside of Charleston and he failed to generate any excitement from the voters or the media. Other prominent state Democrats saw the race as unwinnable because of Governor Campbell's popularity and chose not to run for governor.
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