In this May 25, 2017 file photo, Budget Director Mick Mulvaney speaks during a meeting in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on the White House complex in Washington. Voters in South Carolina’s 5th Congressional District choose , Tuesday, June 20, 2017, between a Republican, Ralph Norman, backing the Trump administration and a Democrat, Archie Parnell, who claims to be best aligned with district voters to replace Mulvaney. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, File)COLUMBIA, S.C. – Republican Ralph Norman won a special election Tuesday to fill the South Carolina congressional seat vacated by Mick Mulvaney, who resigned to the White House budget director.
The race has garnered far less national attention than another special election in Georgia’s 6th District, the most expensive U.S. House contest to date. That race is seen as an early test for the GOP and President Donald Trump since his win over Democrat Hillary Clinton.
South Carolina’s 5th District has been held solidly by Mulvaney since his 2010 victory. There, the GOP ticket defeated Clinton by more than 18 percentage points in November, giving Republicans the confidence they say will keep the seat in their party’s hands.
Norman, a millionaire real estate developer, ran against Democrat Archie Parnell for Mulvaney’s seat. National surrogates stumped for both. Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and former South Carolina Sen. Jim DeMint campaigned with Norman, while national Democratic Chairman Tom Perez came to town for Parnell.
Democrats had held the South Carolina seat for more than a century until Mulvaney rode a tea party wave to defeat longtime incumbent John Spratt in 2010.