Voters in South Carolina's 5th Congressional District will choose their next representative in a special election on Tuesday. The election was required after President Trump tapped Republican Mick Mulvaney to become White House Budget Director.
Mulvaney's resignation from the U.S. House left a vacancy in the district that stretches from South Carolina's Upstate to the Sumter area, east of Columbia. The Republican primary in May produced a runoff in which Rock Hill developer and former longtime state legislator Ralph Norman defeated former prosecutor Tommy Pope.
Tuesday's special election pits Norman against Democrat Archie Parnell, an attorney who has worked for Goldman Sachs and the U.S. Justice Department.
Norman is a staunch supporter of President Trump, giving him a grade of A++ for his first 100 days in office. Parnell is a political newcomer who has campaigned as a moderate. He says Trump Administration policies have been taking the nation "off the rails."
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee spent $275,000 in recent weeks to support Parnell. But the South Carolina race has drawn far less outside money than another special election on Tuesday, in Georgia's 6th Congressional District. In that race, the Democratic committee has spent more than $6 million in hopes of winning what had been a safe Republican district.
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