GALIVANTS FERRY — Democrats gathered around the stump for the state’s oldest political rally Monday evening, cheering a Democratic Party that has been down after recent losses but refuses to be called out.

Instead, the party that showed up at the Galivants Ferry Stump Speaking is defiant.

More than 600 Democrats — and a smattering of Republicans and the unaffiliated — packed the parking lot at the Pee Dee Farms store on rural U.S. 501, continuing a 128-year tradition.

They listened to bluegrass standards and ate chicken bog — the mushy Pee Dee specialty long on rice and flavored with chicken and sausage.

And they listened to politicians, famous and small-town, as they put their hands on both sides of the four-foot stump — yes, there really is a stump — and rallied the faithful, the Democratic base of rural Horry County.

“What makes Galivants Ferry?” Alex Sanders, the 2002 Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate asked. “It’s the music, the chicken bog and the candidates — in that order.”

The star of the evening was U.S. Sen. Fritz Hollings, D-S.C., who celebrated his 50th year at Galivants. He was roasted and celebrated by the party’s A-List, from former Gov. Jim Hodges to U.S. Rep. Jim Clyburn, D-S.C.

Hollings, who retires in January after 38 years in the Senate, joked about his “fine row of pallbearers.” But he soaked up the attention, shaking hands in the crowd, especially those of people lined up to sign the guest book for him.

Speakers and attendees were mindful of history, remembering the first time they came to the stump, the first time they met Hollings, or ate chicken bog.

Stump meetings were once a staple of political life, when candidates spoke at meetings at every courthouse and in every county.

“It’s like an old building, or any other tradition,” said state Rep. Jim Battle, D-Marion, from 20 miles up the way. “It needs to be kept alive.”

Party Chairman Joe Erwin first came to the stump in the mid-1970s, when he was in high school, tagging along with his friend Doug Jennings, now a state representative from Marlboro.

“He said, ‘Joe, until you come to Galivants Ferry, you have not seen S.C. politics,’” Erwin said.

The Democratic Party has been on the wane in the state, as Republicans have tightened their hold on both houses of the General Assembly and the Governor’s Mansion, as well as four of six congressional seats.

But Democrats say they are energized after the attention and attendant hoopla of their first-in-the-South presidential primary in February.

Of 55 delegates headed to this summer’s Democratic National Convention in Boston, 11 are younger than 30 and involved in a year-old organization reaching out to young voters.

One is Elizabeth Poda, 23, a middle school teacher from Columbia. She helped found the Young Democrats after the disappointment of 2002.

“I realized we had to do something about it,” Poda said. “I got together with a group of people, and we said, ‘This is worth fighting for.’”

The front-runner hoping to keep Hollings’ U.S. Senate seat in Democratic hands, state Superintendent of Education Inez Tenenbaum, focused on traditional party themes in her remarks — health care and education.

She took one oblique swipe at what she called the school voucher plans of Republican Gov. Mark Sanford, though she did not mention him by name.

“We cannot give tax breaks for private school education,” said Tenenbaum. “We have to put education first.”

Tenenbaum spoke on the porch of the store, which was topped by American flags and red, white and blue streamers that rippled in the breeze. To her right, cars passed on the rural road; on her left, a character in a donkey suit bounced and shook an “Inez” sign.

She is the party’s best hope, Hollings said. He asked people to honor him by voting for her.

State Rep. James Smith of Richland County, the House Democratic leader, hit a tougher note, sounding a theme sure to be heard through November.

“What have Republicans been able to do with total Republican domination?” Smith asked. “It’s a question that’s got to be answered at some time.

“It’s not much right now.”

The stump brought out the faithful, the curious and, to be candid, six or eight kids seeking extra credit.

Thomas Gore, 15, a sophomore at Aynor High School, came to collect political stickers, gather information for a school project and film the event he’d heard much about but never attended, though he lives four miles away.

Gore watched as former Gov. Bob McNair praised the stump, the one-on-one politics of the past.

“It’s so much better than sound bites,” McNair said. “You get to see the people themselves.”

But Gore quickly learned one lesson of modern media days, the reason stump meetings are a beloved — but dying — tradition.

“If you have a video camera, anyone will talk to you.”

Reach Bauerlein at (803) 771-8485 or vbauerlein@thestate.com