| State: | South Carolina |
| District Number: | 7 |
| Image Caption: | Interactive map of district boundaries since January 3, 2023 |
| Representative: | Russell Fry |
| Party: | Republican |
| Residence: | Murrells Inlet |
| Population: | 762,499 |
| Population Year: | 2022 |
| Median Income: | $53,313[1] |
| Percent White: | 63.9 |
| Percent Hispanic: | 5.0 |
| Percent Black: | 25.8 |
| Percent Asian: | 1.1 |
| Percent More Than One Race: | 3.5 |
| Percent Other Race: | 0.9 |
| Cpvi: | R+11[2] |
South Carolina's 7th congressional district is a congressional district for the United States House of Representatives in South Carolina, established in 2011 following apportionment of another seat to the state in the redistricting cycle following the 2010 census. It is located in the Pee Dee region, and includes all of Chesterfield, Darlington, Dillon, Georgetown, Horry, Marion, and Marlboro Counties and most of Florence County. The district is represented by Republican Russell Fry who was elected in 2022 and took office on January 3, 2023.
The 7th congressional district of South Carolina existed in the 19th century, but was eliminated in 1853 as a result of the 1850 census. After the 1880 census, Congress apportioned the state another seat, and the state legislature re-established the district.
By that time, the Reconstruction era had ended and the state legislature was controlled by Democrats, who wrested control by a mixture of violence and fraud. They defined the boundaries of the 7th district, which was called the "shoestring district" because of its long, narrow shape that included many black precincts. In 1892 and 1894 the majority-black voters of the district elected George W. Murray to Congress; he was the only African American to serve in Congress in those sessions and, following disfranchisement and demographic changes, the last elected from the state until Jim Clyburn in 1992.
In 1895, the Democrat-dominated state legislature passed a new constitution, disfranchising black voters by changes to voter registration and electoral rules that were applied against them in a discriminatory way. For decades after 1896, only white Democrats were elected to Congress from the state. (Such disfranchisement occurred among all the states of the former Confederacy, and their use of poll taxes, literacy tests, grandfather clauses, and white primaries survived several US Supreme Court challenges.)
During the first half of the 20th century, 6.5 million blacks in total left South Carolina and other southern states in the Great Migration to the North, Midwest and West. Following cumulative declines in state population, after the 1930 census, South Carolina lost a seat and the 7th district was eliminated in redistricting. It was last represented by Democrat Hampton P. Fulmer, who was redistricted into the 2nd district.
South Carolina had only six districts for the next 80 years. African Americans were effectively barred from voting until after passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Increases in population led to the state's receiving another congressional seat in the redistricting cycle following the 2010 census.
The 7th district is located in the rapidly developing area of northeastern South Carolina, including the Myrtle Beach metropolitan area (the Grand Strand) and the Pee Dee region.[3] [4] It is a white-majority district and its voters elected Republican Tom Rice as US Representative from the district in 2012; he took office in January 2013, when the 113th Congress convened. Due almost entirely to the presence of heavily Republican Horry County, which has as many people as the rest of the district combined, it tilts Republican.
The district boundaries are roughly similar to the configuration of the 6th congressional district before it was reconfigured after the 1990 census as a black-majority district.
Counties in the 2023–2033 district map:
| Year | Office | Result | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2012 | President | Romney 54.5–44.4% | |
| 2016 | President | Trump 58–39.1% | |
| 2020 | President | Trump 58–40.2% |
| Member | Party | Years | Cong ress | Electoral history | District location | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| District established March 4, 1803 | ||||||||
| align=left | Thomas Moore | Democratic-Republican | nowrap | March 4, 1803 – March 3, 1813 | Redistricted from the and re-elected in 1803. Re-elected in 1804. Re-elected in 1806. Re-elected in 1808. Re-elected in 1810. Retired. | 1803–1813 "Chester district" | ||
| align=left | Elias Earle | Democratic-Republican | nowrap | March 4, 1813 – March 3, 1815 | Redistricted from the and re-elected in 1812. Lost re-election. | 1813–1823 "Pendleton district" | ||
| align=left | John Taylor | Democratic-Republican | nowrap | March 4, 1815 – March 3, 1817 | Elected in 1814. Lost re-election. | |||
| align=left | Elias Earle | Democratic-Republican | nowrap | March 4, 1817 – March 3, 1821 | Elected in 1816. Re-elected in 1818. Retired. | |||
| align=left | John Wilson | Democratic-Republican | nowrap | March 4, 1821 – March 3, 1823 | Elected in 1820. Redistricted to the . | |||
| align=left rowspan=2 | Joseph Gist | Jackson Republican | nowrap | March 4, 1823 – March 3, 1825 | Redistricted from the and re-elected in 1823. Re-elected in 1824. Retired. | 1823–1833 "Chester district" | ||
| Jacksonian | nowrap | March 4, 1825 – March 3, 1827 | ||||||
| align=left | William T. Nuckolls | Jacksonian | nowrap | March 4, 1827 – March 3, 1833 | Elected in 1826. Re-elected in 1828. Re-elected in 1830. Retired. | |||
| align=left | William K. Clowney | Nullifier | nowrap | March 4, 1833 – March 3, 1835 | Elected in 1833. Lost re-election. | 1833–1843 | ||
| align=left | James Rogers | Jacksonian | nowrap | March 4, 1835 – March 3, 1837 | Elected in 1834. Lost re-election. | |||
| align=left | William K. Clowney | Nullifier | nowrap | March 4, 1837 – March 3, 1839 | Elected in 1836. Retired. | |||
| align=left | James Rogers | Democratic | nowrap | March 4, 1839 – March 3, 1843 | Elected in 1838. Re-elected in 1840. Retired. | |||
| align=left | Robert B. Rhett | Democratic | nowrap | March 4, 1843 – March 3, 1849 | Redistricted from the and re-elected in 1843. Re-elected in 1844. Re-elected in 1846. Retired. | 1843–1853 | ||
| align=left | William F. Colcock | Democratic | nowrap | March 4, 1849 – March 3, 1853 | Elected in 1848. Re-elected in 1850. Retired. | |||
| District dissolved March 3, 1853 | ||||||||
| District re-established March 4, 1883 | ||||||||
| align=left | Edmund W. M. Mackey | Republican | nowrap | March 4, 1883 – January 27, 1884 | Redistricted from the and re-elected in 1882. Died. | 1883–1893 | ||
| Vacant | nowrap | January 27, 1884 – March 18, 1884 | ||||||
| align=left | Robert Smalls | Republican | nowrap | March 18, 1884 – March 3, 1887 | Elected to finish Mackey's term. Re-elected in 1884. Lost re-election. | |||
| align=left | William Elliott | Democratic | nowrap | March 4, 1887 – September 23, 1890 | Elected in 1886. Re-elected in 1888. Lost election contest. | |||
| align=left | Thomas E. Miller | Republican | nowrap | September 24, 1890 – March 3, 1891 | Won election contest. Lost re-election. | |||
| align=left | William Elliott | Democratic | nowrap | March 4, 1891 – March 3, 1893 | Elected in 1890. Retired. | |||
| align=left | George W. Murray | Republican | nowrap | March 4, 1893 – March 3, 1895 | Elected in 1892. Redistricted to the . | 1893–1903 | ||
| align=left | J. William Stokes | Democratic | nowrap | March 4, 1895 – June 1, 1896 | Elected in 1894. Seat declared vacant while being contested because of Democratic election fraud. | |||
| Vacant | nowrap | June 1, 1896 – November 3, 1896 | ||||||
| align=left | J. William Stokes | Democratic | nowrap | November 3, 1896 – July 6, 1901 | Elected to finish his own term. Also elected in 1896 to the next term. Re-elected in 1898. Re-elected in 1900. Died. | |||
| Vacant | nowrap | July 6, 1901 – November 5, 1901 | ||||||
Asbury F. Lever | Democratic | November 5, 1901 – August 1, 1919 | Elected to finish Stokes's term. Re-elected in 1902. Re-elected in 1904. Re-elected in 1906. Re-elected in 1908. Re-elected in 1910. Re-elected in 1912. Re-elected in 1914. Re-elected in 1916. Re-elected in 1918. Resigned to become member of Federal Farm Loan Board. | |||||
| 1903–1913 | ||||||||
| 1913–1923 | ||||||||
| Vacant | nowrap | August 1, 1919 – October 7, 1919 | ||||||
| align=left | Edward C. Mann | Democratic | nowrap | October 7, 1919 – March 3, 1921 | Elected to finish Lever's term. Lost renomination. | |||
Hampton P. Fulmer | Democratic | March 4, 1921 – March 3, 1933 | Elected in 1920. Re-elected in 1922. Re-elected in 1924. Re-elected in 1926. Re-elected in 1928. Re-elected in 1930. Redistricted to the . | |||||
| 1923–1933 | ||||||||
| District dissolved March 3, 1933 | ||||||||
| District re-established January 3, 2013 | ||||||||
| align=left | Tom Rice | Republican | nowrap | January 3, 2013 – January 3, 2023 | Elected in 2012. Re-elected in 2014. Re-elected in 2016. Re-elected in 2018. Re-elected in 2020. Lost renomination. | 2013–2023 | ||
| align=left | Russell Fry | Republican | January 3, 2023 – present | 118th | Elected in 2022. | 2023–2033 | ||