The State, the daily newspaper for Columbia, South Carolina, has this lengthy article about this year’s independent candidates running in South Carolina’s gubernatorial and U.S. Senate races. It has a great deal about some of the state’s minor parties as well.

The story says no one other than Democratic or Republican nominees has ever won statewide office in South Carolina. However, in 1954, Strom Thurmond was elected by write-in votes to the U.S. Senate, even though he was not the nominee of any party that year. He defeated the Democratic nominee. No Republican ran.