Alvin Greene Wins Democratic Primary for US Senate Seat

By Sana Ali

Greene is announced the winner of Tuesday’s Democratic Primary for the U.S. Senate seat after surprising results.
Post and Courier reports that the State Election Committee held a meeting Friday afternoon in Columbia at which Alvin Greene was confirmed the winner over opponent Vic Rawl.
Alvin Greene is an unemployed 32-year-old Manning resident currently living with his parents. Greene attended Manning High School and later graduated from the University of South Carolina with a B.A in Political Science. His college education is perhaps the closest he came to getting involved in politics. Greene served as a member of the U.S. Air Force and the Army national guards, however, he has been involuntarily discharged from the Army within the past year.
Greene’s victory over former Judge Vic Rawl raised many doubts and left a lot of unanswered questions in the minds of state officials. Many attempted to understand how Greene won nearly 59 percent of the votes without doing any official campaigning or raising any funds. Contrary to Greene’s effortless “campaign”, the Post and Courier reported that Rawl campaigned around the state and raised $250,000.
U.S. Rep. Jim Clyburn suggested that Greene may have been purposely planted into the race. Clyburn said, “I don’t know if he was a Republican plant; he was someone’s plant.” Clyburn also called for an investigation of the race results and asserted that “There were some real shenanigans going on in the South Carolina primary.”
In spite of not having the Democratic Party’s support, Greene plans to go forward with his campaign and later face Republican Sen. Jim DeMint.
The Democratic Party advised Greene to withdraw; thus far he has not complied with their requests. Democratic Party Chairwoman Carol Fowler said “of course we are encouraging him to withdraw,” However, Greene believes that “the people of South Carolina have spoken,” and that they chose him to be the nominee for the Democratic Party.
Now that the State Election Commission has verified Greene’s win in the race, it is now too late for his opponent to question his qualifications or abilities. However, The Post and Courier reports that Rawl has until Monday June 14, to appeal the reported results.
Greene’s opponent and his staff did not make any clear accusations about the campaign’s inaccuracy.
Rawl’s campaign manager, Walter Ludwig said, “We do not know that anything was done by anyone to tamper with Tuesday’s election, or whether there may have been innocuous machine malfunctions, and we are promoting no theories about either possibility,” Ludwig later states, “However, we do feel that further investigation is warranted.”
If Rawl decides to simply let Greene continue on the race without asking for an appeal, Greene will need to get ready as he faces DeMint in the fall elections.
As the Post and Courier reports, Greene is ready to move forward and beliefs that he is the suitable candidate for the South Carolina senate. He says, “I’ll just put out I’m the best candidate for South Carolina in the U.S. Senate. That’s all I have to say. Thank you.”
A win over DeMint may not be as trouble-free as Green’s win over Rawl. The Republican Senator currently has more than $3.5 million in campaign funds. Unlike Greene, DeMint has much experience representing the state. He has been a Senator for more than five years and represented the fourth congressional district in South Carolina. DeMint is also known for being a conservative senator, thus making him a favorable candidate for a blue state like South Carolina.