That's like betting on all the horses in a horse race.

SC used to be later in the cycle, so the frontrunners for the nomination in both parties were more of a settled issue.

And, gasp, either the Democrat or the Republican won the White House afterwards.

It just points out that the frontrunners for BOTH parties were pretty much determined by the time the SC primary rolled around.

SC used to be later in the cycle.

I mean, it's a pretty sure bet in the General Election that either a Democrat or a Republican will win the White House.


For example, in 1992, both the Republican nominee GHW Bush and the Democratic nominee Bill Clinton won their respective SC primary.

From recent history, from Wikipedia:

Democratic Presidential Primaries--South Carolina.

Winners:
----------

2016 Hillary
2012 Obama
2008 Obama
2004 Edwards
2000 Gore
1996 Clinton
1992 Clinton
1988 Jesse Jackson
1984 uncommitted
1980 Jimmy Carter
1976 George Wallace
1972 George Wallace

You can see that sometimes people other than the eventual primary winner won in South Carolina. For example:

Jimmy Carter did win (changed from "did not win"--Wikipedia error) the S. Carolina primary in 1976, and then won the primary and then won the Presidency.
George McGovern did win not the S. Carolina primary in the 1972 Democratic Primary, but won then primary and then lost the Presidency. This means that South Carolina has not always been an absolute bellweather of future Presidential winners.

BTW Jimmy Carter did win the South Carolina Convention:

https://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1287&pid=585492

Wikipedia indicates in two places that George Wallace won SC in 1976.
1. By coloring SC pink on the U.S. map on the right
2. by listing SC as one of the three states he won.

However, later they indicate that 9 delegates were given to Carter and 8 to Wallace, so I will change my answer above.