South Carolina's state party chairmen and three political experts gathered to debate and discuss the state of politics in South Carolina and beyond amidst an atypical presidential election in a forum Thursday night.
Moderated by Charles Bierbauer, Dean of the College of Information and Communications, the experts discussed the upcoming election and its impact in South Carolina. The discussion ranged in topic from Monday night's debate to the fate of the two major political parties after the election.
Chairman of the South Carolina Democratic Party Jaime Harrison said he thinks Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump will have trouble gaining support from voters in South Carolina who consider themselves socially moderate but fiscally conservative.
"I don't think they want to be attached to anybody who has demonized so many different groups," he said.
Harrison added that he thinks the race in South Carolina will be close.
Matt Moore, Chairman of the South Carolina Republican Party, believes that South Carolina will safely vote for Trump. He said his party has sent out a lot of absentee ballot applications to make sure that the usual voter base for the Republican Party participates in this election and emphasized the importance of voter turnout.
"People on both sides of the equation get either too confident or not confident enough, and they choose to stay home," he said.
In response to a question from an audience member, both the Republican and Democratic chairmen agreed that Trump's recent comments and allegations against the American election system were rash and indefensible.
"It's irresponsible to question whether or not America's election system is credible," stated Moore.
Moore added that most of the election offices in key and swing states are operated by Republicans, so it is unlikely that the election would be rigged against Trump or for another candidate.
Harrison said that he thinks "to demonize and delegitimize our institutions and our governments" is an "extremely, extremely dangerous thing to do."
Many of the panelists agreed that the impacts of the 2016 election on the two major political parties will stretch well beyond 2016.
Monique Lyle, Executive Director of the Institute for Public Service and Policy Research, stated that she is unsure whether or not the Republican party will revert back to a more conventional approach after Trump's campaign.
Political science professor Robert Oldendick agreed, saying, "I would be surprised if there was not a significant split in the Republican Party come the 2020 election."
Oldendick attributes this expected divide to internal flaws in the party.
Lyle said that presidential candidate Hillary Clinton's advantage among women voters is enormous. She said she thinks it will take what she refers to as "easy issues" to shift the expected voter turnout.
"I think it's going to take some new information that is unexpected and that is very easy for voters to wrap their heads around in order for us to see any movement in what we expect the outcome to be," said Lyle.
Absentee voting has already begun in South Carolina in the lead up to the general election on November 8.