South Carolina court weighs Danny Ford II bid for Senate ballot access

A Richland County judge weighed Danny Ford II’s bid to get back on South Carolina’s special Republican Senate primary ballot after party officials decertified him under a new GOP voting rule. Ford appeared with his attorneys in Columbia and asked the court to order officials to include him in the race.

The dispute turned on a South Carolina Republican Party rule that took effect July 1 and requires candidates running as Republicans to have voted in two of the last three statewide GOP primaries. Ford, a Clemson farmer, had recently run in the June 9 Republican primary for South Carolina commissioner of agriculture, where he lost to Cody Simpson. After the death of U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham created the Senate vacancy, Ford filed for the special Republican primary, but state and party officials later ruled that he did not meet the party’s new eligibility standard.

A Richland County judge had already temporarily blocked the South Carolina Republican Party from removing Ford’s name from the ballot pending the hearing. By the time the court took up the case on Aug. 3, the judge had not issued a final ruling, leaving Ford’s place on the Aug. 11 special primary ballot unresolved.

The special Republican primary field had already shrunk from 12 candidates to nine after three candidates were decertified once filing closed. Another decertified candidate filed a separate challenge to a disqualification tied to a residency requirement, and one judge signaled that the South Carolina Republican Party was likely to lose in that related case. The Pickens County GOP delegation voted 23-1 against a proposed rules change to close Republican primaries.