COLUMBIA, S.C. - All six of South Carolina's congressional districts are up for grabs this year, and many have primaries coming up Tuesday. All of those races involve incumbents except the Fourth District, where eight candidates are vying to fill the open seat of U.S. Rep. Jim DeMint, who is leaving to seek the G-O-P nomination for an open U.S. Senate seat.

Three Republicans are running for the seat in the 4th District, which is heavily Republican and has a high concentration of manufacturers and textile companies. DeMint won 69 percent of the vote in 2002, compared with 29 percent for Democrat Peter Ashy.

There's a familiar face in the race this year. Bob Inglis, who held the seat from 1993 through 1999 when he stepped down to honor a term-limit pledge, is the front-runner.

"Inglis is formidable," said Furman University political scientist Danielle Vinson. "He's done it before. He's got the organization and contacts."

Inglis has been more visible than his opponents, with radio ads, mailings and door-to-door campaigning, Vinson said.

After stepping down, Inglis ran against Hollings but lost.

Inglis since has changed his view on term limits. "The institution treats you differently if it knows you're leaving," he said.

The Greenville attorney said he plans to focus on "balancing the budget, healing the health care system and restoring trade competitiveness" if he returns to Washington.

Other Republicans running for the seat are Jack Adams, a retired Greenville business owner and political newcomer, and Carole Wells, a former Spartanburg County legislator and member of the state Employment Security Commission.

Wells said she wants to see more jobs created in the district and the federal budget balanced.

Adams cited illegal immigration, prayer in schools, school vouchers and tort reform among his top concerns.

Democrats seeking the seat are Greenville businessman Brandon P. Brown and military veteran Andrew Wittman of Greer.

Others running include Green Party candidate C. Faye Walters of Greenville, who is in her sixth bid for the seat, Constitution Party candidates Ted Adams of Greenville and Patrick Tyndall of Simpsonville.

Political observers say incumbents in the other five districts should be safe this fall.

In the 1st District, GOP Rep. Henry Brown is seeking a third term in the conservative coastal district that includes Myrtle Beach and Charleston. Brown again faces Bob Batchelder of Myrtle Beach, who ran unsuccessfully for the seat two years ago as a Reform Party candidate. This time Batchelder is running as a Republican.

Garden City marriage counselor James Dunn is running for the seat on the Green Party and United Citizens tickets.

Like 2002, incumbent Brown faces no Democratic challenger. That year, the North Charleston businessman won 90 percent of the district's vote.

In the 2nd District, incumbent Republican Joe Wilson of Lexington faces challenges from Democrat Michael Ray Ellisor and Constitution Party candidate Steve Lefemine of Cayce.

Ellisor, a Lexington criminal defense lawyer, said he's running because Wilson usually sides with President Bush and he doesn't agree with the direction Bush is taking the country.

Lefemine, director of the Columbia Christians for Life group, previously ran unsuccessfully for the seat against Wilson in a 2001 special election after the death of longtime U.S. Rep. Floyd Spence.

Wilson, an attorney who retired as a South Carolina Army National Guard colonel last year, easily won the seat in 2001 with 73 percent of the vote. In 2002, Wilson faced no Democratic challenger and took 84 percent of the vote in the district that stretches from the center of the state south to the Georgia state line and east to the ocean.

In the 3rd District, incumbent Republican J. Gresham Barrett of Westminster is unopposed in the GOP-leaning district that runs across the western part of the state along the Savannah River. This will be Barrett's second term after replacing Lindsey Graham, who now serves in the U.S. Senate with Hollings.

Incumbent Democrat John Spratt is running for a 12th term in the 5th District, which includes the north-central part of the state. The York lawyer and businessman is the ranking member on the Budget Committee and the second-ranking Democrat on the Armed Services Committee.

In 2002, Spratt faced no Republican challenger and easily defeated Lefemine and Libertarian Doug Kendall with 86 percent of the vote.

This time, Spratt is up against Republican Albert Spencer, a Limestone College physical education professor from Gaffney.

The other incumbent Democrat, Jim Clyburn, also faces no primary opponent in the 6th District. Clyburn, the first black congressman from South Carolina since Reconstruction, is seeking a sixth term in the majority black district in the Pee Dee region.

Clyburn, who is vice president of the House Democratic Caucus, easily has won re-election since first going to Washington.

He faces a challenge from a perennial opponent: Gary McLeod of Manning, who is running on the Republican, Libertarian and Constitution parties' tickets. Florence businessman Michael Reino is seeking the Republican nomination.