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I
n his nearly forty years of public service, Floyd Spence proved to be a skillful
campaigner who only grew stronger and more effective as the years progressed.
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Article announcing Floyd Spence's change of party in 1962
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In 1956, he was elected to the South Carolina House of Representatives. Spence, like
every other member of the General Assembly since the end of Reconstruction, was elected as a Democrat. In 1962, in a move
that stunned many, Spence resigned from the Democratic Party and announced that he would forego almost certain re-election
to the Assembly to run instead for the U.S. House of Representatives as a Republican. Like many in South Carolina, Spence
was bothered by aspects of the Democratic platform as well as the Party's loyalty oath requirement. Spence became the
first elected official in the state to change his party affiliation. In his announcement, which was printed in its entirety
in The State newspaper, he stated: "I fully realize that the action I am taking puts my political future in jeopardy...I
feel, however, that the welfare of my state and nation are more important than my political career."
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Campaigners Spence and William D. Workman get some help
from Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1962.
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The 1962 campaign is a landmark in contemporary history as it represents the first
significant second party challenge to the Democratic domination of the state, dating to the end of Reconstruction. Spence
campaigned with journalist William D. Workman, Jr., who opposed longtime incumbent Olin Johnston for the U.S.
Senate. Although both Workman and Spence were defeated, the nascent Republican Party proved it was a force in the
state. Since 1962, South Carolina has slowly trended toward the Republican Party.
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Spence is sworn in as U.S. Congressman by Speaker Carl
Albert (D-OK) in January 1971.
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Four years after his historic 1962 congressional campaign, Spence won election
to the South Carolina Senate, becoming the lone Republican in that body. In 1970, he ran again for Congress. Campaigning
as a "full-time conservative" on the themes of law and order, the Middle East crisis, the Vietnam War, and congressional
spending, Spence defeated Heyward McDonald with 53% of the vote. Two years later, in just his first campaign for re-election,
Spence was unopposed. In his subsequent campaigns, Spence was re-elected by comfortable margins.
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