From First in the Nation to Lost in the Narrative

• Post by: Michael R. Bailey
• August 28, 2025
• No Comment

In a recent Associated Press article, it was reported that the Democratic National Committee is considering changes to the 2028 presidential primary calendar, changes that could place South Carolina’s coveted first-in-the-nation primary status in jeopardy.

That possibility should force a deeper question, not just about dates on a calendar but about how South Carolina earned that position in the first place. How did a blood-red state so often on the wrong side of history become the first stop on the Democratic Party’s road to the presidency?

South Carolina’s Rise Was Black-Powered, Full Stop

The only reason South Carolina became “First in the South” and later, first in the nation for the Democratic primary, was because of its reliable, engaged, and politically active Black electorate. The same electorate that rescued Joe Biden’s presidential ambitions in 2020. The same voters whose legacy traces directly back to a man most have never been taught to remember.

We celebrate men like Barack Obama and Jim Clyburn within the Democratic Party, and we should. Obama’s ascension as the first African American president of the United States was made possible in part by his decisive win in the South Carolina Democratic primary. Clyburn’s legacy as the first African American elected to Congress from South Carolina since Reconstruction is a milestone that reshaped this state’s political landscape.

But let’s be honest. Neither Obama’s presidency nor Clyburn’s historic tenure would have been possible without George Elmore. It was Elmore’s 1947 lawsuit that forced open the Democratic primary to Black voters. Without him, there would have been no access, no participation, and no foundation for the very legacies we now hold up as proof of progress. To honor Obama and Clyburn while erasing Elmore is more than hypocrisy. It is celebrating the fruit while spitting on the root.

The Forgotten Father of Black Voter Power

In 1947, George Elmore, a Black businessman and NAACP activist, filed a lawsuit after being denied the right to vote in the Democratic primary, despite being a registered voter. That lawsuit, Elmore v. Rice, struck down South Carolina’s white-only primary system. It was a seismic moment in the fight for civil rights, led by legal giants like Thurgood Marshall. It opened the gates for tens of thousands of Black South Carolinians to participate in the political process.

George Elmore’s sacrifice was enormous. He lost his business. He was harassed by the Klan. His family suffered. But what he secured, for the Democratic Party and for the country, was Black participation in primaries that shaped the future of this state and this nation.

Complicity in Silence: Black Leadership, Plantation Politics, and the Crisis of Courage

But let’s not stop at the DNC or white party elites. Let’s talk about the Black leadership within the South Carolina Democratic Party who sit quietly while George Elmore remains erased.

That is not neutrality. That is complacency. To sit back and oversee a thirty-year losing streak in statewide general elections, to watch a steady decline in Democratic voter engagement among the very base that built this party, and to do nothing to rebuild credibility and viability in South Carolina is a dereliction of duty. And it is that same dereliction of duty that has infected the national Democratic Party. Without the courage to confront evil within your own ranks, you will never confront evil across the aisle. Without the courage to name betrayal and neglect within your own house, you cannot claim the moral strength to fight it outside.

This is what I call Plantation House Syndrome. It is drawn from the old dynamic on the slave plantation where those who worked inside the house believed themselves superior to those who labored in the fields. Their misguided sense of honor came from proximity to the master’s power, not from confronting the master’s evil. They thought themselves privileged because they were close to the seat of authority, even as they remained enslaved.

Today that same mindset haunts the South Carolina Democratic Party. Too many of its Black leaders cling to proximity to the white power structure within the party, refusing to challenge its failures. They will not call out wrongdoing, betrayal, or neglect because they fear losing status and esteem. In their silence, they mistake survival for courage, and deference for leadership.

The Consequences Are Already Here

The South Carolina Democratic Party is not just at risk of losing a primary date. It is at risk of losing its soul, and the evidence is already in front of us. Look no further than the decline in support for Vice President Kamala Harris among Black voters, especially among Black men like myself and my peers. Or the increase in support Donald Trump gained in 2024 from our community.

This is not a messaging issue. This is not about better slogans or more canvassers. This is about trust, and it is being lost.

A recent New York Times analysis by Shane Goldmacher and Jonah Smith laid bare the crisis. In every one of the 30 states that track party registration, plus Washington, D.C., Democrats lost ground to Republicans between 2020 and 2024. In total, Democrats shed about 2.1 million registered voters while Republicans gained roughly 2.4 million. That is not just numbers on a spreadsheet. It is a warning siren that voters across the board, and particularly minorities who have carried this party for generations, are walking away.

This erosion of trust is sharpest among Black voters who see the party celebrating their loyalty during campaign season but betraying their needs when it comes time to govern. The same voters George Elmore fought to bring into the Democratic fold now feel neglected, taken for granted, and abandoned.

Final Thoughts: A Word to Chairman Ken Martin

Chairman Martin, let me be clear. South Carolina’s position in the Democratic primary calendar did not come cheaply. It was not handed to us, and it was not the product of convenience. It was won through sacrifice. It was secured through George Elmore’s courage and the suffering of countless Black South Carolinians who demanded a voice in a party that once denied them entry.

To you, this may look like a scheduling issue. A logistical shuffle. But it is much more than that. It is a test of what this party values, what it remembers, and what it chooses to forget. If you move South Carolina out of its place, you are not just rearranging a calendar — you are erasing the blood, sweat, and sacrifice that made this state politically significant in the first place.

If you truly value African American voters, if you truly want to reverse the erosion of trust that has hollowed out this party’s base, then you cannot treat South Carolina as just another piece on the board. To do so would prove you do not even know your own party’s history. And without that history, you are leading this party blindly into irrelevance.

South Carolina’s Democratic Party is already showing you the warning signs: decades of losing statewide elections, declining voter engagement, and a credibility crisis with the very base that built it. Strip away South Carolina’s primary position without acknowledging why it mattered in the first place, and the national party will follow the same path into obscurity.

Think before you act. Learn why South Carolina was placed first. Honor the sacrifices that made it possible. Because if you fail to do that, if you ignore George Elmore and the history that gave this party its backbone, then you will not only lose South Carolina. You will lose the nation.