South Carolina voted for the Republican nominee, Rutherford B. Hayes, over the Democratic nominee, Samuel J. Tilden. Hayes won the state by a very narrow margin of 0.48%, only 889 votes. Events such as the Hamburg massacre served to dissuade many Republican voters.[1] This would be the last time a Republican presidential candidate would win South Carolina until Barry Goldwater carried the state in 1964. Had Tilden won South Carolina, he would have won the election.
Due to Jim Crow laws disenfranchising many Black voters as well as some poor white voters, the total vote count of 182,683 votes cast in this election would not be surpassed until 1952, 76 years later. In fact, between 1884 and 1928, the total vote did not even pass 100,000.