COLUMBIA, S.C. — After being kept off ballots in 2022, a branch of the former Labor Party is running three candidates for seats in the General Assembly under the newly organized South Carolina Workers Party.
All three candidates filed March 22 to run for both a House and Senate seat in the Legislature. They plan to pick one and withdraw from the other after the June 11 primaries that decide the GOP and Democratic nominees.
The Workers Party is also running candidates for president and vice president from the Party for Socialism and Liberation, a national organization. It will be the first time since 1940 that a socialist will appear on the ballot for president in South Carolina.
The legislative candidates were nominated during the Workers Party convention March 16, which brought about 60 people, according to a release provided first to the SC Daily Gazette.
This will be the first election for the Workers Party in South Carolina, which follows Labor Party candidates being booted by the Democratic Party.
In August 2022, a judge ordered the state Election Commission not to put Labor Party candidates for governor, lieutenant governor and the 1st Congressional District on ballots. Her ruling found that the party’s disputed convention came two months after a state deadline.
The unprecedented case began with an intra-party dispute between feuding co-chairs — one who certified candidates from a July convention, the other who argued that convention was a sham and the party didn’t have candidates for 2022. When the state Election Commission decided it had to accept the certification letter and include the party’s candidates, the state Democratic Party sued.
The judge ultimately sided with the Democratic Party without weighing into the turmoil of the minor political party.
“They didn’t want to run against Democrats,” Gary Votour, who was the gubernatorial candidate in that case, said about the Labor Party leaders who opposed being on the ballot in 2022. “They didn’t want to run candidates, period, unless it was an uncontested seat.”
The Democrats running for governor and the 1st District lost in 2022 to Republican incumbents by wide margins. The Labor Party candidates likely wouldn’t have made any difference in the outcome.
Votour is now treasurer of the Workers Party and among its candidates for 2024 ballots.
This time, with a timely convention of a new party, Votour said he does not anticipate any legal issues.
“The main thing is exposure, bottom line,” said Harold Geddings, co-chair of the Workers Party, who would’ve been Votour’s running mate in 2022. “With us having a presidential candidate now, that means we’re going to be on every ballot in the state.”
The Workers Party candidates:
• Kiral Mace, running in Senate District 16 (potentially challenging Michael Johnson, R-Fort Mill) and House District 26 (held by Raye Felder, R-Fort Mill, who is not seeking re-election)
• Geddings, running in Senate District 26 (held by Nikki Setzler, D-West Columbia, who is not seeking re-election), and House District 93 (held by Russell Ott, D-St. Matthews. Ott and Sen. Dick Harpootlian, D-Columbia, have announced they’re running for Setzler’s seat.)
• Votour, running in Senate District 22 (held by Mia McLeod, I-Columbia, who has not announced her intentions since leaving the Democratic Party) and House District 76 (potentially challenging Leon Howard, D-Columbia)
