South Carolina Democrats May have threw away their best chance of competing for DeMint's Senate Seat & winning a Open Congressional Seat

An unemployed military veteran has stunned South Carolina Democratic Party leaders by winning the nomination to challenge Republican U.S. Sen. Jim DeMint.

Thirty-two-year-old Alvin Greene of Manning defeated 64-year-old Vic Rawl of Charleston in Tuesday's primary. Rawl is a former judge and legislator, who had about $186,000 cash available and had already scheduled a fundraising event for Thursday.

Greene raised no money in the contest, had no signs and no website.

Democratic Party Chairwoman Carol Fowler says she hasn't seen Greene since he filed to run. She says Greene will be a much weaker candidate than Rawl going into November against tea party favorite DeMint.

She says people who didn't know either candidate and voted alphabetically may help explain Greene's win.


Meanwhile State Rep. Tim Scott is heading toward a runoff in the Republican 1st Congressional District race against his former Charleston County Council colleague, Paul Thurmond, son of former U.S. Senator Strom Thurmond.



Scott received 32 percent of the vote, while Thurmond, son of the late U.S. Sen. Strom Thurmond, had 16 percent.


The June 22 runoff will pit Scott, who is vying to become South Carolina's first black Republican congressman since Reconstruction, against Thurmond, whose father revived the state's GOP as he fought for segregation.

Here's the shocker: On the Democratic side, commercial airline pilot and Air Force veteran Robert Burton lost to Ben Frasier, 57, a small-businessman who already splits his time between the Washington area and Charleston and who has run for this office 18 times which is ridiculous.

Frasier managed a 56-44 win in very light Democratic voting. With 97 percent of the vote counted, it appeared as if the two combined wouldn't approach the total Scott received. The 1st District has been in Republican hands since 1980.