Campaign Files, 1992 (defeated Tommy Hartnett in the general election)

Campaign for U.S. Senate, 1992

In 1992, Senator Hollings withstood a fierce challenge from Mt. Pleasant realtor and former Republican congressman Tommy Hartnett. A seasoned politician, Hartnett had served in the South Carolina House, 1965-1973, and Senate, 1973-1980, and the U.S. House of Representatives, 1980-1986. In 1986, Hartnett mounted an unsuccessful bid to become South Carolina's first Republican Lieutenant Governor since Reconstruction. Hartnett won the right to oppose Hollings in the general election by defeating Charlie Thompson, an instructor at Greenville's Trident Technical College, in the Republican primary.

An increasingly conservative South Carolina electorate and fervent anti-incumbency sentiment combined to make Hollings a prime target for GOP strategists in 1992. As early as June, 1991, political analysts at Cook and Company rated his seat a "toss-up." By May, 1992, the Rothenberg Report, citing the Senator's "weak poll numbers and...credible opponent," labeled him "highly vulnerable."

Three elements of a vigorous Hollings' campaign were instrumental in helping him meet Hartnett's challenge and win reelection while incumbents across the country were thrown out of office. First, he ran a strong advertising campaign which began very early in the race. Second, he was able define Hartnett as "Washington's candidate," and mute his opponent's vitriolic attacks. Third, he out raised and out spent Hartnett throughout the campaign.

After a rocky start to Hartnett's campaign, the Republican National Senatorial Committee (RNSC) dispatched several staff members to South Carolina to bolster Hartnett's faltering fundraising and organizational efforts and pledged the maximum $340,000 of "coordinated expenses" for the campaign. Responding to his obvious vulnerability and attempting to head off serious difficulty later in the race, Hollings ran a series of positive ads very early in the campaign. In June, ads demonstrating his commitment to fiscal conservatism aired throughout the state. A June 16 draft statement indicated that Hollings intended to run a "clean, positive campaign...stressing South Carolina's achievements during his terms as governor and senator." Hartnett went negative early in the campaign, attacking Hollings' record on taxes, crime, the Gulf War, and the line-item veto as early as April 15. Hollings provided rapid and effective responses to the opposition's attacks. Hartnett's strategy was to denounce Hollings as a Washington insider who had amassed a war chest full of out-of-state funds. He brought nationally prominent Republicans such as Vice President Dan Quayle, Senators Phil Gramm and Bob Dole, and even President Bush to South Carolina. The Senator seized this opportunity to brand Hartnett as "Washington's candidate." Though this at first seemed an absurd tactic by a man who had spent the last twenty-five years in the Senate, it was extremely effective. Hollings' team presented an image of the opponent as a cardboard cutout propped up by the GOP establishment in the nation's capital. It was revealed that Hartnett's Congressional reform plan was exactly the same as that of Republican candidates in five other states, that Hartnett was being shadowed by a RNSC media specialist on trips across the state, that the RNSC had provided him with free polling data which it did not offer his primary opponent, and that Hartnett's campaign received in excess of $300,000 from national GOP coffers.

Hollings stayed well ahead of Hartnett in the crucial fundraising game. On March 31, 1992, Hollings had already banked nearly $2 million while Hartnett had less than $100,000 on hand. Throughout the year, the Senator out paced his challenger in both PAC and private contributions, and easily overcame the significant funding the Hartnett campaign secured from the RNSC. Ultimately, Hollings won a narrow victory, receiving just over 51% of the vote.