South Carolina was won by incumbent President George H. W. Bush (R-Texas) with 48.02% of the popular vote over GovernorBill Clinton (D-Arkansas) with 39.88%. Businessman Ross Perot (I-Texas) finished in third, with 11.55% of the popular vote.[1] Clinton ultimately won the national vote, defeating both incumbent President Bush and Perot.[2]
This election marked the completion of South Carolina's transformation from one of the strongest Democratic states in the country to a reliably Republican one. South Carolina had voted for the Democratic nominee in every election from 1880 (the first election after Reconstruction) through 1944, always by wide margins and usually giving the Democrat over 90% of the vote.[3] After it voted for Strom Thurmond in 1948, it returned to the Democratic fold to vote for Adlai Stevenson twice and for Kennedy in 1960, albeit narrowly.
^Cite error: The named reference results was invoked but never defined (see the help page).