Hey, Remember When Democrats Spent $130 Million Trying to Win a South Carolina Senate Race?

Last cycle, one of the odder phenomenons in the Senate races was the rapid rise and quick disappearance of Democrat Jaime Harrison in his bid to unseat incumbent Republican senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina. Harrison more or less played the Beto O’Rourke playbook — pick a hated Republican senator from a southern state, and ride gentle press coverage and some very questionable polling to record fundraising haul. Harrison spent $130 million . . . and then finished ten points behind Graham.

Harrison is now the chairman of the Democratic National Committee.

Apparently, Democrats aren’t getting their hopes up in the Palmetto State again. You can be forgiven if you missed that South Carolina GOP senator Tim Scott is running for reelection this cycle. How uncompetitive is this race? It appears only two public polls of this race have been conducted the entire cycle. A poll in March put Scott up by 32 percentage points over Democrat Krystle Matthews; a poll that ended September 7 put Scott up by 17 percentage points. That early autumn survey found Scott with a 51 percent favorable rating, 33 percent unfavorable rating.

Next time some Democrat tries to argue they have a chance to win statewide in South Carolina, there will be a lot of well-founded skepticism to overcome.