In recent decades, the lives of residents in Allendale County, South Carolina have been marked by factory closures, depopulation, and political isolation.
Despite this, the remote Lowcountry community has remained deeply loyal to the Democratic Party at the same time that broad swathes of rural America have reddened. Now, ahead of the 2024 Democratic primaries, this community’s political frustration has deepened as the party focuses on bolstering support for Biden.
“It’s worse now [in Allendale] than it was during segregation, if you can believe that,” Lottie Lewis, a long-time community leader, tells The Progressive. “There has not been a lot of change, and the change that has taken place has not been positive . . . . We have the least of everything, and we are treated as such.”
In a county where Antebellum-era plantations populate the countryside and elderly residents remember Jim Crow laws during their childhood, voting is seen as a responsibility with deep roots in history. In every election since Richard Nixon’s reelection campaign in 1972, Allendale County has voted for the Democratic presidential nominee. In 2020, Joe Biden won 75.6 percent of Allendale County’s vote, the highest margin of votes he received in any county in South Carolina, a state that Donald Trump won by 55.1 percent.
For decades, Allendale has experienced a farming crisis, a textile industry moving overseas, and an interstate highway being rerouted to the east. Over the years, community leaders say that Allendale’s cries for help have gone largely unheard by out-of-county elected representatives. The once-blossoming rural Black community had a population of 12,058 people in 1992; it has since fallen to 7,579. The Allendale County Council predicts that by 2030, only 5,800 residents will remain.
With the population decline has come a nutrition crisis, the collapse of municipal infrastructure, and a rise in youth gun violence. A pattern of corruption has also been widespread in Allendale’s local governments; in November, the outgoing mayor of Fairfax, a town of around 2,000 in Allendale County, attempted to cancel the meeting at which the newly elected mayor would be sworn in.
Elijah de Castro
Long-time Allendale, South Carolina, community leader Lottie Lewis reflected on the frustration the community feels towards Democratic Party leadership and the accelerating rate at which her community is struggling.
For far too long, Lewis says, the concerns of Allendale residents have been neglected by a party that has taken rural Black voters for granted. “As a Black woman, as a person who lives in a small rural town, what else do I vote for?” She adds. “For me and for the folks that I’ve talked to, that’s where they are at and that puts us between a rock and a hard place. This is our life we’re talking about.”
During the 2020 Democratic Primary, Pete Buttigieg, Cory Booker, and Tom Steyer all made campaign stops in Allendale County. Although these visits came across to Lewis and others as mostly symbolic, Lewis says that at least Allendale had a wider array of choices.
That sense of choice is nonexistent in 2024. Since the start of the primary cycle, the Democratic National Committee has refused to hold debates between Biden and other candidates like Marianne Williamson and Dean Phillips. This has only deepened Allendale’s frustration with the Democratic Party.
For far too long, Lewis says, the concerns of Allendale residents have been neglected by a party that has taken rural Black voters for granted.
“I’ve heard a lot of people saying that instead of voting for Biden, they just won’t vote because of the lack of choices,” Allendale resident Estella Cohen tells The Progressive. “That doesn’t help us at all, [but] I’m saddened, I’m disappointed. I wanted to be able to have a choice.”
To rally Black voters and Democrats before the primary, California Governor Gavin Newsom did a tour of South Carolina on January 24, making stops at Hilton Head Island, Bamberg County, and at an Allendale County Democratic Party fish fry.
“Despite all the headwinds, despite all the consternation, all the negativity that’s coming their way, you look at what I would argue is a masterclass that is the Biden-Harris Administration,” Newsom told a crowd of Allendale voters. “The reality is, it’s not being shared as much as it needs to be. We're just consumed because of this anger machine on the right that’s defining the terms of our engagement.”
Newsom emphasized the tangible benefits of policies the Biden Administration has passed, many of which, he claimed, can be found locally. Under the PACT Act, veterans in Allendale can now get treatment they otherwise would not have had access to. The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) has also lowered healthcare costs for Allendale’s seniors. Additionally, the IRA is paying farmers in Allendale for past discrimination they experienced from Farm Service Agency agents, and has kickstarted a massive expansion of solar technology throughout rural South Carolina.
Improving infrastructure and job opportunities in Allendale, however, are years-long projects that don’t offer immediate relief. Through the American Rescue Plan, for example, the Town of Allendale has received millions of dollars to repair its failing water and sewer systems. But the town’s council expects a contract for the repairs to be signed in October 2024, far too late to sway frustrated Allendale voters for the general election.
After the event, The Progressive asked Newsom what he would say to Allendale voters upset with Biden and the lack of a larger variety of candidates in the primary.
Elijah de Castro
California Governor Gavin Newsom speaks with Democratic voters in Allendale, South Carolina, at a fish fry event. The event was part of the Biden campaign’s efforts to excite unenthusiastic Democrats in South Carolina ahead of the primary.
“You look historically, dominantly, that’s the norm with an incumbent President,” Newsom says. “Humbly I submit that his record warrants his blocking out most others primarying him. I’m the wrong guy to ask, I’m here enthusiastically supporting his reelection because I think he deserves it.”
Gun violence and the lack of social infrastructure and equal educational opportunities for young people are among the most urgent issues Allendale faces—all campaign issues in the 2020 Democratic primary. Since Biden’s election, these issues have remained unchanged in Allendale; some problems, like high school graduation rates, got worse during the COVID-19 pandemic. Several voters at the event told The Progressive that what they need most is “a seat at the table.”
Jim Clyburn, Allendale’s Congressional representative and the House minority whip, who is also the national co-chair of Biden’s reelection campaign, has expressed concern with the unexcited mood among Black voters. On January 30, The Washington Post hosted a livestream with Clyburn about the Biden campaign’s messaging. In the livestream, Clyburn said Democrats need to be more repetitive and assertive in their messaging to Black voters about the Administration’s accomplishments.
“You cannot give me any substantive reason why any Black person in this country or in this world would vote for Donald Trump,” Clyburn said during the livestream. “I can tick off all the things, the positive things that have been produced by [Biden] that mean so much to Black people. . . . Why aren’t they giving this President credit? Because people focus on style, [and there’s] a lot of misinformation.”
In an email response to questions from The Progressive, Clyburn insisted that he engages with voters in Allendale: “[Neither] I, nor President Biden, have ever taken Black Americans for granted,” Clyburn wrote. “I talk to people in Allendale regularly and my office hears from scores of them and others throughout the 6th Congressional District daily. They do feel and see the changes.”
Donald Baker/Public domain
Official portrait of U.S. Representative Jim Clyburn, March 2019.
Although Clyburn remains an influential Black leader in Allendale, and in South Carolina in general, some Allendale voters view him as unresponsive to local voices. Clyburn’s office in Washington, D.C., is frequently visited by lobbyists and his campaigns have been financed by tens of millions of SuperPAC dollars. Lewis said calls she has made to Clyburn’s office for getting Allendale help have gone unreturned.
“There’s a lot of people in this town that share that sentiment,” says Nate Hartley, an Allendale resident who once met Clyburn personally. “I don’t see that [Clyburn has] done anything. Of course [Clyburn] listened and took me seriously while he was in my face. As soon as he was gone, it didn’t mean anything anymore.”
Lewis and other community members in Allendale like to describe the county as “underserved, but more importantly undervalued.” Lewis believes the first step in fixing this will require listening to what the community needs—something the Democrats aren’t doing. During Newsom’s visit, he spoke about the Biden Administration’s accomplishments for more than thirty minutes, but listened to voters for less than five.
“I’m tired of people deciding what they think we need without even speaking to us,” Lewis says. “We need to have choices and we don’t have a lot of choices, and in no situation should it be that way.”