Noon on 28 July closed candidate filing for South Carolina's special Senate primary, and the State Election Commission's own tracking system now lists nine Republicans as Active on the 11 August ballot: Duke Buckner, Russell Fry, Darline Graham, Mark Lynch, Mark McBride, Ralph Norman, Glenda Gail Parker, Mark Sanford and Samuel Shepherd. Three further filers, Danny Ford II, Darius Mitchell and Clark Neilson, carry the status Not Certified for Primary.
One filer in four failed to qualify. That rate says something about a window the Commission could not widen: seven days to gather signatures, satisfy the paperwork and hand over a $10,440 fee. Fry and Norman entered on 20 July without surrendering the House seats they hold, and neither faces a choice about that until January.
Nine names also change the arithmetic of the contest itself. A field this size makes it considerably harder for anyone to clear fifty per cent on 11 August, which pushes a 25 August runoff from a possibility toward an expectation and extends the campaign by a fortnight nobody has budgeted for.
