Party · South Carolina

Forward Party

One of 9 parties on South Carolina’s list for the November 3, 2026 election, named as the state names it.1

Research draftcertified political party
Picks nominees by
Primary or convention
State’s party list
The state’s own list
Researched
October 27, 2026

Research draft. We gathered this from official sources on October 27, 2026: election offices, state laws and court records, each linked to its source. Separate reviewers checked a random sample of 54 facts from the party research against the cited sources and found 4 errors, since corrected; 1 couldn’t be checked because the source wouldn’t display its text. The rest hasn't been reviewed fact by fact yet, so check the linked source before relying on anything here.

§1Ballot status

Drafted by AI from the public sources cited. Each sentence links to its source.

It is on South Carolina's own list of parties qualified for the 2026 election.1 The state's class for it: certified political party.1

The State Election Commission lists it as formerly the Independence Party.1

How a party qualifies in South Carolina

A group becomes a certified political party by filing a petition signed by at least 10,000 registered voters, under a name clearly different from any party certified before.2 § 7-9-10 The petition must reach the State Election Commission at least six months before the first election in which the party wants to nominate candidates; if it falls short, the same name cannot be used in a new petition for one year and the same signatures cannot be reused.2 § 7-9-10

How a party keeps its status

To stay certified, a party must organize at the precinct level, hold county and state conventions, and nominate and certify candidates in at least one of every two consecutive November general elections; otherwise the State Election Commission decertifies it.2 § 7-9-10 A decertified party may regain certification at any time through the 10,000-signature petition.2 § 7-9-10

§2How it picks nominees

Drafted by AI from the public sources cited. Each sentence links to its source.

Primary or convention. A certified party nominates by primary unless it has switched to a convention, which takes a three-fourths vote of its convention's total membership and approval by a majority of voters in the party's next primary; a party that used a convention in the previous cycle may keep doing so without holding a primary.3 §§ 7-11-10, 7-11-30

South Carolina's rules for nominating

Nominees reach the general election ballot by party primary, party convention or, for candidates outside the parties, by petition.3 § 7-11-10(A) A party that wants to change from primaries to a convention needs a three-fourths vote of its convention's full membership and a majority vote in its next primary, and it cannot switch once candidate filing has begun for that cycle.3 § 7-11-30 Party primaries are held on the second Tuesday in June, with runoffs two weeks later if needed; a candidate may not be the nominee of more than one party for the same office.3,4 §§ 7-13-40, 7-11-10(C)

§3Notes on South Carolina’s party research

What the research couldn’t find or confirm about South Carolina’s parties, in its own plain words. Nothing is left out silently.

  • The State Election Commission pages we read do not say whether each of the seven parties other than the Democratic and Republican parties nominated its 2026 candidates by primary or by convention, so each is marked primary-or-convention under state law. We did not use the Commission's candidate tracking search.