Columbia, SC · how this place’s counties split between candidates in each party’s presidential nominating contest, cycle by cycle. A primary is a contest inside one party, so it has no Democratic–Republican margin and is not part of the general-election record above.
Akashic reports votes cast, not delegates awarded. The two can disagree: Clinton led the 2008 national primary popular vote by less than half a point and did not win the nomination.
Primary returns are published at county grain and there is no roll-up above it. Each cell counts how many of this place’s counties a candidate led — a count of records, not a vote total. Who led the place as a whole is not knowable from these returns, because county rows carry a leader and a lead but no per-candidate votes.
Presidential nominating contests in Columbia, SC, by party and cycle.
○no contest record — Akashic holds no result for that party and cycle here. It is not a claim that no contest was held. Telling apart a contest that was cancelled, one that went uncontested, and one simply not yet ingested needs a nominating-contest calendar, which is a separate ingest from results and does not exist yet.
Republican presidential primaries are not yet ingested — the Republican series runs from 1856 and is in scope. The row is kept so its absence is visible: a Democratic-only panel would otherwise read as though no one else held a contest.
Akashic carries 10 states for 2012 and 3 states for 2024. Cycles in which an incumbent president seeks renomination are thin by nature — few states run a contested primary — so a sparse column is politics, not a hole in the record.
County returns carry a leader and a lead over the runner-up, and nothing more. The full candidate field with vote shares is published at state grain — follow a cycle above to the state contest for it.
voter registration
Registered voters
Total registered voters, over time
Registered voters
Voter registration in Columbia, SC
Year
Total registered
2016
702,661
2018
775,013
2020
826,216
2022
788,390
2024
795,432
domestic migration
Who moves in and out
Net domestic migration over time
+6,677 net domestic migration · 2025
20112025
Net +55,146 over 2011–2025 · gain loss
Domestic migration in Columbia, SC in Columbia, SC: net domestic migration by year
Year
Net domestic migration
2011
−4
2012
+773
2013
+1,504
2014
+2,366
2015
+3,317
2016
+3,078
2017
+2,600
2018
+2,233
2019
+2,585
2021
+6,455
2022
+8,884
2023
+7,677
2024
+7,001
2025
+6,677
The Columbia DMA anchors South Carolina's Midlands, blending a large state-government workforce, two major universities, and Fort Jackson — the Army's largest basic-training post — into an electorate that swings differently than the coast or Upstate.
Across the recorded series it reached a Democratic high of 98.4 points in 1936 and a Republican high of 37.0 points in 1972. Between 2020 and 2024 the market moved 6.4 points toward the Republican candidate; the 2024 margin was 1.0 points.
A population of 1,122,746, a 51% non-Hispanic-white share, and a median household income of $64,520 describe the market. The market's voting pattern over the last decade is most similar to that of Memphis and Jackson, MS.
Akashic
Political twins — media markets
The media markets whose fingerprint — 2000–2024 trajectory, demographics, ancestry, religion — sits closest to this one, and why.
Twin score (0–100) = weighted cosine between tier-standardized fingerprints: presidential margins 2000–2024 with 12-yr trend and elasticity, ACS income, age, education, population and race, top reported ancestries, and religious adherence — chips name the closest-shared dimensions and the widest gap. Re-weight the groups in the twins explorer.
Compare two places, side by side
Twelve curated comparisons line up election history, demographics, and the divergence story for two places at a glance. Browse all comparisons →
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All citations released under CC BY 4.0. Attribution: Akashic Intelligence.
Columbia, SC, South Carolina. Akashic. https://akashic.app/dma/546/. Accessed May 20, 2026. License: CC BY 4.0.
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How did Columbia, SC, South Carolina vote in 2024?
In 2024, Columbia, SC, South Carolina voted Democratic by 1.0 points (D+1.0), carried by the Democratic candidate. Out of 515,655 votes cast, 256,488 went Democratic and 251,166 went Republican.
When did Columbia, SC, South Carolina last vote Republican?
The most recent presidential election in which Columbia, SC, South Carolina voted Republican was 2004.
How many people live in Columbia, SC, South Carolina?
Columbia, SC, South Carolina has a population of 1,122,746 according to the 2024 American Community Survey 5-year estimates from the US Census Bureau.
What is the median household income in Columbia, SC, South Carolina?
Median household income in Columbia, SC, South Carolina is $64,520 — below the national median of $80,734. The South Carolina state median is $69,324.
What is the political history of Columbia, SC, South Carolina?
Akashic tracks 34 presidential elections in Columbia, SC, South Carolina from 1892 to 2024. Of those, 21 went Democratic and 11 went Republican.
