Vote 2020 Preview: Fifth Congressional District
Rep. Ralph Norman squares off against Democratic challenger Moe Brown for the district's Congressional seat
With just a week to go until Election Day, all seven Congressional seats in South Carolina are up for grabs.
One of those seats falls in the Fifth District, which encompasses parts of the following counties:
- Sumter
- Lee
- Kershaw
- Lancaster
- Fairfield
- Chester
- York
- Cherokee
- Spartanburg
- Union
- Newberry
According to U.S. Census data, two-thirds of the district’s population is white, while 28.6% of the population is Black. 2015 census estimates show the population of the district to be around 678,910, while the median income is roughly $51,131.
In recent presidential elections, people in the district have generally voted in favor of Republican candidates. In 2016, 57.3% of voters in the district voted in favor of President Donald Trump.
Since 2011, a Republican has represented the district in Congress. Mick Mulvaney served from 2011 to 2017, when he resigned to become the Director of the Office of Budget and Management and Acting Chief of Staff in the Trump administration. Mulvaney defeated John Spratt (who had served in the seat since 1983) in the 2010 midterm election, becoming the first Republican to hold the fifth district’s Congressional seat since 1883.
Who is running for the district’s seat?
Rep. Ralph Norman (R-SC) is running for re-election for a seat he has held since 2017. After serving in the South Carolina House of Representatives, Norman defeated tax attorney and Democratic challenger Archie Parnell in both a special election in 2017 and in the midterm election in 2018.
His challenger is Moe Brown, a former wide receiver for the University of South Carolina who served under Gov. Nikki Haley in the South Carolina Department of Commerce. This is Brown’s first time running for a Congressional seat.
ABC Columbia spoke with both Rep. Norman and Brown leading up to the general election on November 3. In the video, the candidates are asked about why Fifth District voters should vote for them, how Congress should assist in nationwide economic recovery, whether or not schools should go back to being open five days a week, and what they hope to see after Election Day.
