akashic
1876–2024
State Senate District 46·South Carolina

South Carolina 46th State Senate District voted Democratic for a century; it now votes Republican by 14 points.

18762024·38 elections
SC
Latest
R+14
in 2024
Archetype
Old Confederacy
since the recent cycles
Population
60,778
2024 ACS

South Carolina 46th State Senate District, South Carolina: Old Confederacy district. In 2024, voted R+14%. Democratic peak: D+92 in 1936.

Key facts

2024 presidential margin
R+14MIT Election Lab
Political archetype
Old ConfederacyAkashic typology
Population
60,7782024 5-year
Median household income
$86,2592024 5-year
White (non-Hispanic)
68.9%2024 5-year
Black
16.0%2024 5-year
Hispanic / Latino
12.5%2024 5-year
Peak Democratic margin
D+92 in 1936MIT Election Lab
Peak Republican margin
R+29 in 1972MIT Election Lab
2 counties · 0 D · 2 R
R+60
D+60
One cell per constituent county. Ordered by 2024 D-vs-R margin (bluest first). Hover for county-level numbers.
Source · MIT Election Lab · ICPSR · VEST (precinct-level 2024).
YearWonMarginDemocraticRepublicanTotal
R
−14.4%
13,72018,40532,522
R
−9.8%
13,51416,50730,400
R
−13.5%
10,02113,30524,396
R
−17.1%
9,31313,20422,754
R
−10.4%
9,47111,69021,363
R
−21.0%
6,70110,30117,127
R
−17.8%
5,4647,90413,717
R
−11.4%
4,2635,44510,349
R
−9.8%
3,6134,5669,754
R
−29.1%
2,7465,0187,810
R
−28.8%
2,3584,2786,669
R
−6.1%
2,3672,6885,260
D
+2.2%
1,9371,8543,805
R
−28.7%
1,0261,8642,916
D
+9.7%
1,1869322,608
R
−11.5%
8701,0971,968
R
−5.8%
5726421,214
R
−12.4%
224334887
R
−17.9%
357513870
O
+8.5%
8247410
D
+60.3%
18934257
D
+73.5%
19029219
D
+92.2%
1660180
D
+89.2%
1810203
D
+54.4%
13038169
D
+68.1%
11420138
D
+30.8%
8746133
D
+57.7%
12232156
D
+81.3%
1480182
D
+31.7%
16083243
D
+12.9%
12798225
R
−0.9%
116118234
R
−20.9%
89136225
R
−20.6%
5482136
No data
No data
No data
No data

Demographics

Race, ethnicity, and ancestry
Click any group to see the ancestries typically reported within it.
German
13.1%
English
13.1%
Irish
12.1%
Italian
6.2%
American
5.9%
Polish
2.7%
French
2.6%
Source · American Community Survey 5-year estimates, 2024 release. Hispanic/Latino is an ethnicity that overlaps the race categories, so these shares can total more than 100%. Ancestry is a self-reported, multiple-response item; ancestry percentages do not sum to the parent race percentage.
Language at home
Population aged 5 and older
88.2%
speak English only
Spanish8.8%
Other Indo-European1.7%
Asian & Pacific Islander0.9%
Other languages0.5%
Source · ACS 5-year estimates, 2024.
Religious adherents
Adherents per capita by tradition
Catholic & Orthodox
21.3%
Other Christian
9.3%
Baptist
5.3%
Mainline Protestant
3.9%
Methodist
2.8%
Pentecostal & Holiness
1.1%
Non-Christian
0.9%
Source · 2020 US Religion Census. Remaining 55.5% of residents not counted as adherents by any reporting body.

South Carolina 46th State Senate District sits in the Deep South. For nearly a century after Reconstruction, the district voted Democratic — not because of New Deal politics, but because of the lingering memory of the Civil War. The Democratic party of the Solid South was the party of segregation, and in South Carolina 46th State Senate District as throughout the former Confederacy, Republican identification was politically untenable until the second half of the twentieth century.

The shift began with civil rights. 1980 marked the realignment in South Carolina 46th State Senate District, by a six points margin. The Republican margin reached its widest at twenty-nine points in 1988. The 2024 margin was fourteen points.

The political shift has tracked, in South Carolina 46th State Senate District, the political shift of the South more broadly. A 69% non-Hispanic-white share, a median household income of $86,259, and a 10% poverty rate describe the demographic context.

Compare two places, side by side

Twelve curated comparisons line up election history, demographics, and the divergence story for two places at a glance. Browse all comparisons →

Cite this page
All citations released under CC BY 4.0. Attribution: Akashic Intelligence.
State Senate District 46, South Carolina. Akashic. https://akashic.app/sld-upper/45046/. Accessed May 20, 2026. License: CC BY 4.0.
License: CC BY 4.0

Frequently asked questions

How did State Senate District 46, South Carolina vote in 2024?
In 2024, State Senate District 46, South Carolina voted Republican by 14.4 points (R+14), carried by the Republican candidate. Out of 32,522 votes cast, 13,720 went Democratic and 18,405 went Republican.
What is State Senate District 46, South Carolina's political archetype?
Akashic classifies State Senate District 46, South Carolina as a "Old Confederacy" district based on its long-arc presidential voting pattern. Across 38 elections in the dataset, the district has voted Democratic 13 times, Republican 20 times, and other 1 times.
When did State Senate District 46, South Carolina last vote Democratic?
The most recent presidential election in which State Senate District 46, South Carolina voted Democratic was 1976.
How many people live in State Senate District 46, South Carolina?
State Senate District 46, South Carolina has a population of 60,778 according to the 2024 American Community Survey 5-year estimates from the US Census Bureau.
What is the median household income in State Senate District 46, South Carolina?
Median household income in State Senate District 46, South Carolina is $86,259 — above the national median of $80,734. The South Carolina state median is $69,324.
What is the political history of State Senate District 46, South Carolina?
Akashic tracks 38 presidential elections in State Senate District 46, South Carolina from 1876 to 2024. Of those, 13 went Democratic and 20 went Republican. The district's archetype — "Old Confederacy" — captures the overall trajectory of that voting record.