Describe a Republican in South Carolina in the 30s

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

go.

[Sol]

A Black person.

A bit harder to describe a Republican voter though...

[Wazza [INACTIVE]]

A well-off Businessman (Who may or may not have been a Lily White type) who’s income is tied to an industry which benefits from protectionist/economic nationalist policies. Many if not most of these people would have been registered Democrats simply to effectively take part in state and local political activities but there surely would have been some who were too principled to join the Democratic Party.

A good proportion of the minuscule number of African Americans that could vote would have been Republicans as well.

[𝕭𝖆𝖕𝖙𝖎𝖘𝖙𝖆 𝕸𝖎𝖓𝖔𝖑𝖆]

Someone with enough social capital not to be intimidated into voting Democratic.

[DC Al Fine]

IIRC, NC Yankee found that southern Republicans in that era were a mix of the blacks who could vote, beneficiaries of Republican patronage  and northern transplants.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

Someone with enough social capital not to be intimidated into voting Democratic.

By the 1930s, it wasn't intimidation, it was that the Democratic Party literally was the only game in town if you were interested in being more relevant politically than a modern day Libertarian or Green.

[Former President tack50]

Weren't elections in SC at ythat time better described as "electoral type events" more than anything else?

Kind of like your average "election" in North Korea, Russia or Syria?

[cinyc]

Practically nonexistent. Probably someone who made a mistake marking his or her ballot.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

Weren't elections in SC at that time better described as "electoral type events" more than anything else?

Kind of like your average "election" in North Korea, Russia or Syria?

Depends.  The general election was generally just a formality, but the Democratic primary could be competitive.

[Samof94]

Weren't elections in SC at ythat time better described as "electoral type events" more than anything else?

Kind of like your average "election" in North Korea, Russia or Syria?

Didn’t Texas have white primaries back then, which made blacks and Latinos lose all rights to vote?

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

Weren't elections in SC at ythat time better described as "electoral type events" more than anything else?

Kind of like your average "election" in North Korea, Russia or Syria?

Didn’t Texas have white primaries back then, which made blacks and Latinos lose all rights to vote?

Some places did. Not everywhere.
If memory isn't failing me here...

[H. Ross Peron]

A "white-passing" person with significant black ancestry who identified with black political interests and voted for Republicans out of dislike for the Jim Crow order.

[avishwanath28]

Has to be a black person, South Carolina is insanely Democratic even as far as southern states go at this time. South Carolina GOP is a joke of an organization at this time (again, even compared to other Southern states).

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

Has to be a black person, South Carolina is insanely Democratic even as far as southern states go at this time. South Carolina GOP is a joke of an organization at this time (again, even compared to other Southern states).

Actually, no. More likely, it's a white person who had held a Federal patronage position in the 20s and had no idea that the Democrats would control the Federal executive until the 50s. There literally was no other reason to be a Republican the first half of the 20th century than hoping to have a patronage position when the Republicans controlled the Federal government.

[avishwanath28]

Has to be a black person, South Carolina is insanely Democratic even as far as southern states go at this time. South Carolina GOP is a joke of an organization at this time (again, even compared to other Southern states).

Actually, no. More likely, it's a white person who had held a Federal patronage position in the 20s and had no idea that the Democrats would control the Federal executive until the 50s. There literally was no other reason to be a Republican the first half of the 20th century than hoping to have a patronage position when the Republicans controlled the Federal government.

Weren't those essentially gone with the Pendleton Act, though? I know it took a bit longer to phase in in some departments versus others, but I thought it was basically fully reformed by this point.

[Skill and Chance]

Wealthy Northern industrialist who moves south to open a factory?

[Adam Griffin]

As far as voters (because that's all that really mattered then): white Yankee urban business owners in Columbia and Charleston, with perhaps a sprinkling of poor Appalachian white trash in places like Oconee and Pickens County.

[I need an explanation]

A member of the empty shell that was the South Carolina Republican Party.

That’s about the only thing I can think of.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

Has to be a black person, South Carolina is insanely Democratic even as far as southern states go at this time. South Carolina GOP is a joke of an organization at this time (again, even compared to other Southern states).

Actually, no. More likely, it's a white person who had held a Federal patronage position in the 20s and had no idea that the Democrats would control the Federal executive until the 50s. There literally was no other reason to be a Republican the first half of the 20th century than hoping to have a patronage position when the Republicans controlled the Federal government.

Weren't those essentially gone with the Pendleton Act, though? I know it took a bit longer to phase in in some departments versus others, but I thought it was basically fully reformed by this point.

Yes and no. For instance, postmasters were for the most part civil service by the 20s, but the handing out of RFD routes was still done on a patronage basis.

[Indy Texas]

As far as voters (because that's all that really mattered then): white Yankee urban business owners in Columbia and Charleston, with perhaps a sprinkling of poor Appalachian white trash in places like Oconee and Pickens County.

Was the Republican Party ever relevant in upstate SC back then? Looking at the maps, there's a fairly abrupt transition from Republican overperformance in northern GA and western NC to basically no Republicans just across the state line in SC.

Seems like the Appalachian part of SC would have just been populist Democrats.

And anyway, SC had a very elitist political culture and many "poor white trash" would have likely been excluded from the franchise due to poll taxes and literacy tests.

[Sol]

As far as voters (because that's all that really mattered then): white Yankee urban business owners in Columbia and Charleston, with perhaps a sprinkling of poor Appalachian white trash in places like Oconee and Pickens County.

Was the Republican Party ever relevant in upstate SC back then? Looking at the maps, there's a fairly abrupt transition from Republican overperformance in northern GA and western NC to basically no Republicans just across the state line in SC.

Seems like the Appalachian part of SC would have just been populist Democrats.

And anyway, SC had a very elitist political culture and many "poor white trash" would have likely been excluded from the franchise due to poll taxes and literacy tests.

Upstate SC is mostly just Piedmont; there's very little of the Mountains proper in the state. That doesn't explain all of it (I think the rest would be SC's authoritarian politics?) but it's a good bit of it.