COLUMBIA, S.C. — U.S. Rep. Jim Clyburn, who many call a "kingmaker" for his role in making former Vice President Joe Biden the Democratic presidential nominee, easily won a 15th consecutive term on Tuesday for the 6th Congressional District in the U.S. House.
The Associated Press called the race for Clyburn at 8 p.m.
At 80, headed for another two-year term in his $174,000-a-year job, Clyburn is now South Carolina's oldest and longest-serving federal official currently in office.
Clyburn bested two opponents — Republican John McCollum and the Constitutional Party's Mark Hackett — to win the district.
In his position now, Clyburn has come a long way from the young Black American civil rights protester arrested and thrown in South Carolina jails numerous times in the 1950s and 1960s for seeking the same rights that white South Carolinians have.
"He's a hero — an icon," said Bakari Sellers, 36, a former Black state lawmaker and former Clyburn intern who is talked about as making a run for the 6th District seat when Clyburn occupies it no longer.
These days, Clyburn, with his 28 years of incumbency, is not only the House's third-ranking Democrat and House majority whip, but he also has a national bully pulpit that would be the envy of most politicians.
In recent months, with the luxury of not having serious challengers for his seat representing a district that, as the state's only majority-minority district, went heavily for Hillary Clinton four years ago, Clyburn is a sought-after speaker on cable news networks that have national audiences.
In those widely-watched forums, Clyburn, chair of a House Select Subcommittee on the coronavirus, is a counterpoint to President Donald Trump, accusing the president of racism and of mishandling the pandemic that has killed more than 230,000 Americans, among other perceived infractions.
Only U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C. — Clyburn's political opposite and one of Trump's most loyal disciples — has commanded the kind of nationwide media attention Clyburn enjoys these days.
On FOX News Tuesday afternoon, host Neil Cavuto reminded Clyburn that he helped save Biden's campaign by endorsing him just before the crucial February S.C. Democratic presidential primary. Up to then, Biden had repeated poor showings in early states that voted before South Carolina. After Clyburn's endorsement, Biden won a huge majority in the S.C. Democratic primary, demonstrating Biden's broad appeal to minorities and whites and forcing most other candidates to drop out as the contest exploded across the South and into Super Tuesday states.
"It looked like Joe Biden was toast — everybody had given up on him," said Cavuto, calling Clyburn a "kingmaker."
Around noon Tuesday, Clyburn was out and about, appearing for a noon press conference at Columbia's Greenview precinct, one of the state's largest African American precincts with more than 3,000 voters.
Clyburn, who sported a baseball cap with a black four-leaf clover, said he felt lucky about his race. "I've found the harder I work, the luckier I get."
Clyburn has come a long way since 1992, when he first ran for Congress at the age of 52 in the state's first majority-Black congressional district. He had lost three previous bids for public office.
But in 1992, Clyburn beat four challengers in a high-profile primary without a runoff and then bested a white Confederate flag-waving challenger in the general election, according to Clyburn's autobiography, "Blessed Experiences."
Clyburn's sprawling 6th District includes all or part of 16 mostly rural counties from Columbia to Charleston and down to Beaufort and is home to some 660,000 people.
Despite Clyburn's national prominence, some say he has more to do on the home front.
"This is not taking anything away from Jim — he is a true hero," says Sellers, "but I wish his district has risen along with him. The district is still a really poor district, with places where water doesn't work. S.C. State, a historically Black university, is struggling, and some kids still go to elementary school in trailers and we've had hospitals close."
