Abstract Joseph O. Rogers was the first gubernatorial candidate of the modern Republican Party in South Carolina. Elected to the South Carolina House of Representatives as a Democrat for Clarendon County, he served six consecutive terms, 1955-1967. Rogers gradually became discouraged with what he viewed as a lack of resolve on the part of South Carolina Democrats to resist federal encroachment into the affairs of state government. On March 7, 1966, Rogers formally announced that he was switching to...