The 1970 South Carolina gubernatorial election was held on November 3, 1970 to select the governor of the state of South Carolina.

John C. West John Carl West Sr. (August 27, 1922 – March 21, 2004) was an American Democratic Party politician who served as the 109th governor of South Carolina from 1971 to 1975. From 1977 to 1981, he was the United States ambassador to Saudi Arabia ...

, the

Democratic Democrat, Democrats, or Democratic may refer to: Politics *A proponent of democracy, or democratic government; a form of government involving rule by the people. *A member of a Democratic Party: **Democratic Party (United States) (D) **Democratic ...

nominee, won a close general election against Albert Watson, the Republican

congressman A Member of Congress (MOC) is a person who has been appointed or elected and inducted into an official body called a congress, typically to represent a particular constituency in a legislature. The term member of parliament (MP) is an equivalen ...

from the 2nd congressional district. '' The New York Times'' credited West's victory to his success among Black voters, "whites who were moderate on racial issues", and segments of the white working-class who supported George Wallace's 1968 presidential campaign but were disappointed with the state of the economy. Central to the campaign was the issue of

school integration School integration in the United States is the process (also known as desegregation) of ending Race (human categorization), race-based Racial segregation in the United States, segregation within American public and private schools. School segreg ...

: Watson ran a segregationist campaign and pledged to "stand up" to federal judicial orders to desegregate schools.

Primaries

Both John Carl West and Albert Watson faced no opposition in their party's primaries which allowed both candidates to concentrate solely on the general election.

General election

Watson's campaign was supported by President Richard Nixon and Senator

Strom Thurmond James Strom Thurmond Sr. (December 5, 1902June 26, 2003) was an American politician who represented South Carolina in the United States Senate from 1954 to 2003. Prior to his 48 years as a senator, he served as the 103rd governor of South Caro ...

. Watson's anti-integration campaign rhetoric is considered to have contributed to a white supremacist riot that targeted Black schoolchildren. Watson would defend the rioters, stating that "you can expect that to happen when you have frustrated people … People get restless and then things occur.” The general election was held on November 3, 1970 and West was elected as the next

governor of South Carolina The governor of South Carolina is the head of government of South Carolina. The governor is the '' ex officio'' commander-in-chief of the National Guard when not called into federal service. The governor's responsibilities include making year ...

. Turnout was even higher than the previous gubernatorial election because of the recent enfranchisement of Black voters and the controversial candidacy of Albert Watson. , - , , colspan=5 ,

hold , -

References

External links

SCIway Biography of Governor John Carl West

1970 Events January * January 1 – Unix time epoch reached at 00:00:00 UTC. * January 5 – The 7.1 Tonghai earthquake shakes Tonghai County, Yunnan province, China, with a maximum Mercalli intensity scale, Mercalli intensity of X (''Extrem ...

1970 United States gubernatorial elections Gubernatorial November 1970 events in the United States {{SouthCarolina-stub

Primaries

General election

See also

References

External links