SC GOP dominant and divided (AUDIO)

Highlighted by Nikki Haley’s victory in the governor’s race and the sweeping of all but one of the congressional seats in the recent election, the South Carolina Republican Party flexed its muscles as not simply the majority, but the dominant political party in the state.

However, Clemson University Political Science professor Dr. David Woodard says when a party becomes bigger it inevitably becomes divided. In the case of South Carolina, Woodard says that means Tea Party conservatives versus the “Establishment.”

Woodard says U.S. Senator Jim DeMint strategically hitched his wagon to the Tea Party Movement and he helped several of their candidates get elected and they will soon be his GOP colleagues in the 112th Congress. The move has greatly increased DeMint’s stature within the national Republican Party, but Woodard says that national stature doesn’t automatically anoint DeMint as the leader to bring the factions of the state GOP together.

AUDIO: Woodard says the state GOP could use a stabilizing force with a human face :50

Tea Party conservatives in South Carolina have made rumblings that they will “go after” U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham in 2014 because of his willingness to reach across the aisle to forge compromises to ease some of the gridlock in Congress. Woodard says Graham is viewed by many conservatives as a moderate, but his overall voting record has a distinct conservative slant.

Graham continues to convey the message that for government to work compromises have to made, but Woodard says that message falls on deaf ears to many conservatives in South Carolina.

Woodard says Graham has made overtures toward appeasing Tea Party conservatives, especially after the man he supported incumbent Fourth District Republican Congressman Bob Inglis was trounced in the GOP runoff by Trey Gowdy.

AUDIO: Woodard says Graham will seek to find common ground with Tea Party members :59

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