Bush, DeMint Win In South Carolina

GREENVILLE -- In a day marked with high voter turnout and a few technical problems, South Carolina voters elected to keep President George W. Bush in office.

Bush holds a 58 percent to 41 percent edge over Sen. John Kerry with more than 98 percent of the vote counted.

The Senate race between Rep. Jim DeMint and Inez Tenenbaum, one of the nation's most expensive, was hotly contested, with scathing ads from both candidates and groups that supported them. DeMint finished with 55 percent of the vote.

In other races, Bob Inglis will return to the Fourth District seat he held for six years in the 1990s, leading Democratic candidate Brandon Brown and Green Party candidate C. Faye Walters by a considerable margin.

"Six years out, it's been a wonderful opportunity to gain some perspective from the previous six years, and now that I've got the opportunity to go back, I'd like to use the last six years to make another six even better," Inglis said.

The referendum to give the General Assembly control over the future of liquor minibottles appears to be passing, with 59 percent of voters giving the nod to the referendum.

Voters in Laurens County and Oconee County chose to keep their current sheriffs, while a local option sales tax failed in Oconee County and Spartanburg County.

In Anderson County and Spartanburg County, new sheriffs were elected for the first time in more than a decade.

"I'm gonna try to do my best to live up to that voter confidence and give them a law enforcement agency that they can point to with pride. I'm so proud of all my friends who've helped me with this, devoted their blood,sweat, and tears, and money to this project. It's been a lot of work for the last year and I'll never be able to thank them enough," Anderson County Sheriff-elect David Crenshaw said.

"It's been a long journey since Jan. 9. I'm proud of myself, my wife, my family and my staff. We've done very well and God's been good to us," Spartanburg County Sheriff-elect Chuck Wright said.

Click Here To See Election Returns
Watch Part Of Jim DeMint's Victory Speech
Watch Part Of Inez Tenenbaum's Concession Speech

Previous Stories:

• November 2, 2004: Voters Show Up In Droves For General Election