American Party of South Carolina

The American Party of South Carolina is a third party in the United States. Established in 2014, the party is active only in South Carolina.

Not to be confused with American Party (1969) or American Party of Florida.
American Party of South Carolina
ChairpersonJim Rex
FoundedJanuary 2014 (2014-01)
HeadquartersGreat Falls, South Carolina, U.S.
IdeologyCentrism
National affiliationAlliance Party
Seats in the Upper House
0 / 46
Seats in the Lower House
0 / 124
Website
http://www.americanpartysc.com/

History

The American Party of South Carolina was founded by physician Oscar Lovelace and former South Carolina Superintendent of Education Jim Rex in 2014. According to Rex and Lovelace, their impetus in starting the new party was to present a centrist alternative to the Republican Party and Democratic Party that could address perceived government dysfunction.[1] Rex and Lovelace began collecting the 10,000 petition signatures required for formal party recognition under South Carolina state law during the 2013 South Carolina State Fair. Voter discontent with the United States federal government shutdown of 2013, which coincided with the fair, helped invigorate an unusually robust level of interest in the proposed new party.[2]

In 2014, the first year of electoral activity for the party, it unsuccessfully ran four candidates for public office in that year's South Carolina elections.[3][4][5][6][7][8] The same year its youth wing, Young Americans, was established with an inaugural chapter at Winthrop University.[9]

The party's 2016 state convention was attended by 61 delegates from nine South Carolina counties, and nominated Peter Skewes as its candidate for president of the United States, as well as candidates for five other offices. As of 2016, the party said it hoped to expand beyond South Carolina and it registered with the Federal Elections Commission the same year.[10][11]

On October 14, 2018 a group of independent state political organizations, including the American Party, joined together to create the Alliance Party. Jim Rex is the National Chair.

Platform

According to the party, it supports term limits, campaign finance reform, and "attacking problems from the center instead of the left or the right".[8]

References
  1. Hutchins, Corey (9 April 2014). "S.C.'s New Moderate American Party Debuts with Four Candidates for 2014". Free Times. Archived from the original on 14 September 2016. Retrieved 4 August 2016.
  2. Hutchins, Corey (26 November 2013). "Government shutdown helps new political party in S.C." Charleston City Paper. Retrieved 4 August 2016.
  3. "American Party of South Carolina". ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia. Retrieved 24 August 2016.
  4. "Donna McGreevy". ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia. Retrieved 24 August 2016.
  5. "Ed Murray". ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia. Retrieved 24 August 2016.
  6. "Emile DeFelice". ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia. Retrieved 24 August 2016.
  7. "Jill Bossi". ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia. Retrieved 24 August 2016.
  8. Thompson, Scott (30 March 2016). "3 Sun City residents running for office on third-party ticket". Blufton Today. Retrieved 4 August 2016.
  9. Street, Lindsay (10 February 2014). "Organizer: New party outnumbers Democrats, Republicans at Winthrop". South Carolina Radio Network. Retrieved 4 August 2016.
  10. Arnsdorf, Isaac (28 June 2016). "NFIB nabs Addington". Politico. Retrieved 4 August 2016.
  11. Crowder, Mike (15 May 2016). "American Party of SC nominates candidates for a handful of offices". WRHI. Retrieved 4 August 2016.

See also
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