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Upstate GOP leaders plotting to meddle in SC Democratic primary by boosting Bernie Sanders

·         By Jamie Lovegrove jlovegrove@postandcourier.com

Feb 4, 2020 Updated 1 hr ago

Sen. Bernie Sanders speaks to thousands gathered at the South Carolina Statehouse for the annual King Day at the Dome rally on Jan. 20. File/John A. Carlos II/Special to The Post and Courier

John A. Carlos II

COLUMBIA — A group of prominent Upstate Republicans are preparing to launch a wide-scale effort this week to encourage GOP voters across South Carolina to vote for U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders in the Feb. 29 Democratic primary, The Post and Courier has learned.

The Republican plan to meddle in the Democratic race, coming just weeks before the "First in the South" primary, has two goals: Boost the candidate who the Republicans believe presents the weakest general election threat to President Donald Trump and pressure Democrats to support closing state primaries in the future.

South Carolina has open primaries, meaning voters do not have to register by party and can participate in either party's contest. The S.C. GOP executive committee voted last year to forgo their 2020 presidential primary, so the Democratic election will be the only one held Feb. 29.

Greenville GOP chairman Nate Leupp, Spartanburg GOP chairman Curtis Smith, Anderson GOP chairwoman Cheryl Cuthrell and the leaders of multiple Tea Party activist groups in the Upstate are behind the effort to undercut the Democratic race, with other officials still considering joining them.

The group is set to formally announce its plans at a news conference at the Greenville GOP headquarters on Thursday morning, at which point they intend to spread the message across Republican social media pages in South Carolina and push it on conservative talk radio shows.

"Bernie Sanders is the most socialistic, liberal candidate running in the Democratic presidential preference primary," Leupp told The Post and Courier. "So we feel we can make a strong point that our Democratic state legislators need to help work to close our primaries so it protects them as well as the Republican brand."

The idea is inspired in part by conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh's "Operation Chaos" in 2008, when he encouraged Republicans to vote for Hillary Clinton over Barack Obama in the Democratic primaries in order to keep her in the race and sow division among Democrats.

The most recent Post and Courier-Change Research poll of likely Democratic primary voters in South Carolina had Sanders down by just five percentage points against former Vice President Joe Biden, who has long been the front-runner in the state.

That led Leupp to believe they could potentially narrow the gap even more if they can persuade even a small fraction of the state's Republican voters to heed their call. In 2016, about 740,000 voters participated in South Carolina's Republican presidential primary, compared to 370,000 in the Democratic primary.

"I think we can easily affect the outcome," Leupp said. "This is going to catch on like wildfire."′

Presidential preference primaries in South Carolina have no write-in option, so the group plans to pitch the effort to Republicans as a way for them to show their support for Trump even without a primary of their own. 

"People have been waiting and waiting for 2020 to come along to vote for Trump, and now they can't" because of the cancelled GOP primary, Leupp said. "But they can still help Trump. And it helps the Upstate's cause of registration by party and closed primaries, so it's a win-win for any conservative Republican."

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