Presidential hopefuls see Rock Hill as a stop on road to the White House

Like Des Moines, Iowa, or Manchester, N.H., the city of Rock Hill is quietly becoming a compulsory stop on the road to the White House.

Republicans Carly Fiorina and Rand Paul on Wednesday became the latest presidential candidates to visit the city. They followed a parade of hopefuls from both parties.

“Basically, we are the gateway to South Carolina,” said Scott Huffmon, a political scientist at Winthrop University.

South Carolina will hold the nation’s fourth presidential contest next year – after Iowa, New Hampshire and Nevada – and the first in the South.

Republicans are scheduled to vote Feb. 20; Democrats, a week later.

Candidates have streamed into the state for months. Most have found their way to York County, part of the state’s fastest-growing region and one of its most voter-rich and most conservative.

On Wednesday, Fiorina drew more than 700 people to a town hall at Winthrop, while Paul attracted 200 to a mid-morning visit to an American Legion post.

Since mid-August, Republicans Jeb Bush and Mike Huckabee also have appeared on Winthrop’s campus. And earlier this month, Democrat Bernie Sanders drew 3,000 people to Winthrop’s Byrnes Auditorium.

“When you get those kind of crowds, the politicians will find you,” said U.S. Rep. Mick Mulvaney, a Republican from nearby Indian Land.

U.S. Rep. Jim Clyburn, South Carolina’s only Democrat in Congress, has invited all of his party’s presidential candidates to a Nov. 6 forum at Winthrop. That same day, GOP U.S. Sen. Tim Scott of Charleston will host a campus town hall with Paul.

Conservative stronghold

Presidential campaigns have begun to realize that York County – with its base of college students, pockets of retirees and suburbanites and growing suburbs – has a lot of votes.

“Everybody goes to Greenville County because they see that’s where the votes are,” Mulvaney said. “There’s as many votes in York County. York County itself is just a huge block of Republican primary votes.”

More specifically, conservative votes.

In 2012, former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich won the county on his way to winning the state’s primary. In 2008, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee carried the county despite losing the state to U.S. Sen. John McCain of Arizona.

And in 2010, York County gave Mulvaney 63 percent of its votes in helping him unseat veteran Democratic incumbent – and York County resident – John Spratt.

“It’s a conservative county, and it delivers,” said Glenn McCall, the county’s former GOP chairman and current member of the Republican National Committee.

Voters don’t register by party in South Carolina. But the number of Republican primary voters in York County grew from fewer than 21,000 in 2008 to 31,600 in 2012.

“It’s just not a sleepy little rural county like it was when I got into politics,” said Don Fowler of Columbia, a one-time Democratic National Chairman. “It’s much more urban and cosmopolitan. And it’s close to a major media center in Charlotte. I think Democrats go there for the media.”

Amy Hayes, chairman of the York County Democrats, said she isn’t discouraged.

“Being chair is like being pastor of a very large and somewhat discouraged congregation just because people think it’s a very Republican area,” she said. “But there’s a lot of Democrats.”

A concerted effort

Huffmon said Winthrop and its John C. West Forum on Politics and Policy, which tries to engage students and the community in public policy, has made a concerted effort to take advantage of the primary by hosting related events. That effort helped the school accommodate Fiorina’s event on short notice when another venue proved too small.

Rock Hill also benefits from its relative proximity to other population centers as well as the Charlotte airport.

“We’re a gateway to the state but also to the upstate,” he said. “We’re an hour down the road from Spartanburg. We’re an hour down the road from Columbia. It’s a growing base that gives you easy access to our major airports and other major bases of voters.”

With North Carolina moving up its primary to mid-March, candidates could be even more attracted to a county that comes with a media market in Charlotte that reaches into both states.

County GOP activist Sharon Bynum, a former member of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg school board, clearly loves the chances to get up close and personal with presidential candidates. That’s different from Charlotte, where they usually come for private fundraisers.

“When (candidates) come to Charlotte, you don’t know where they’re going to be,” she said. “Here, they go to places where we’re invited. The whole county is like family. It’s a wonderful thing.”

This story was originally published September 23, 2015 at 6:29 PM with the headline "Presidential hopefuls see Rock Hill as a stop on road to the White House."