Judge grants motion to keep Danny Ford on special election ballot until hearing 11%
By Bella Carpentier9%
7/31/2026, 12:51:13 PM
BS Summary: This article contains 15 faulty reasoning types, including Availability Heuristic, Negativity Bias, and Confirmation Bias, with Appeal to Authority as the most egregious example at 22% saturation with 81 hits. Analysis detected 474 faulty-reasoning hits from 369 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 22.9% and a BS Rank of 11% (22,842 of 25,513 articles). This article is better (less manipulative) than 89.50% of the article peer group.
Danny Ford II, who ran as a Republican for commissioner of agriculture, is suing the South Carolina Republican Party after he was deemed ineligible to run in the Senate race.
Ford, a Clemson farmer who lost the June primary to Cody Simpson, filed to run in the special Republican Senate primary following Lindsey Graham's death on July 11.
However, the state Republican Party determined that Ford did not meet candidate qualifications.
Ford filed a lawsuit against the South Carolina Republican Party and the South Carolina State Election Commission on July 30.
He is seeking a temporary restraining order to keep him on the special election ballot.
A judge granted that request on July 31.
The judge's order prevents state Republicans from keeping Ford off the ballot until the case is heard in court.
A hearing is scheduled for Aug. 3 at 9:30 a.m. in the Richland County Court of Common Pleas.
According to the lawsuit, the state Republican Party recently changed its rule so that a Republican candidate must have been registered to the party for at least 90 days, and must have voted in two of the three past statewide Republican primaries.
The new rule took effect on July 1.
The lawsuit states that Ford was told he would not appear on the ballot because he violated the new rule.
Ford is arguing that he does not violate the rule since he voted in the June 9 primary and June 23 primary runoff.
Ford had also been certified by the state Republican Party in the commissioner of agriculture race.
Lawyers for the South Carolina Republican Party filed a response to Ford's lawsuit, insisting that Ford does not meet qualifications and stating that the party has the sole authority to certify its candidates.
"South Carolina law gives the Party the sole authority and duty to ensure the qualifications of its candidates and to certify those qualified candidates to run in partisan primaries," the response stated.
The South Carolina Republican Party has not responded to a Greenville News request for comment.
Bella Carpentier covers the South Carolina legislature, state, and Greenville County politics.
Contact her at bcarpentier@gannett.com
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