S.C. Encyclopedia | The resurrection of the Republican Party in South Carolina during the second half of the twentieth century was a top-down phenomenon. The first major victory for the Republican Party occurred in 1964. In 1961 Republican U.S. senator Barry Goldwater of Arizona, referring to conservative white southerners, stated, “we’re not going to get the Negro vote as a bloc in 1964 and 1968 so we ought to go hunting where the ducks are.” Conservative white South Carolinians supported Goldwater for president in 1964 and his states’ rights message, and he carried the state, receiving 58.9 percent of the popular vote. From 1964 to the end of the twentieth century, South Carolina voted Republican in every presidential election except 1976, when Jimmy Carter won the state.