“Who’s Running, Not Who’s on the Ballot”: Catherine Fleming Bruce on Her Write-In Run for the Senate

In 1954, Strom Thurmond won a seat in the United States Senate as a write-in candidate, the only person ever elected to the Senate that way at the time. He was a segregationist who had run for president six years earlier to defend Jim Crow. Seventy-two years later, another South Carolinian is asking voters to write in a name. Catherine Fleming Bruce is a Black woman, an author, a preservationist and the daughter of a Sumter County civil rights leader, and she is running from outside the two-party ballot for the seat long held by the late Senator Lindsey Graham, who died in July. His sister, Senator Darline Graham Nordone, was appointed to finish his term and is now the Republican nominee, facing Democrat Annie Andrews and Bruce's write-in challenge.

Bruce first ran for the Senate in 2022. This year she left the Democratic primary, though not the party, and filed as a write-in candidate with the South Carolina Election Commission. Her campaign runs alongside two other projects rooted in history: a forthcoming biography of her father, Louis Fleming, who chaired the Sumter (SC) County Council and helped bring a voting rights challenge to at-large elections; and her work preserving the civil rights landmarks she describes in her book The Sustainers, including the Columbia home of Modjeska Monteith Simkins.

South Carolina has never elected a Black woman to Congress. HistorianSpeaks asked Bruce what it means to run anyway, after the Supreme Court’s decision in Louisiana v. Callais weakened the Voting Rights Act. Her answers have been lightly edited for length and clarity.

The Write-In Campaign

HistorianSpeaks: South Carolina holds a unique place in Senate write-in history. Strom Thurmond won his seat in 1954 as a write-in candidate and a segregationist. Seventy-two years later, you are running as an African American woman on a progressive write-in campaign for the seat held by the late Lindsey Graham. How does that parallel shape how you understand this campaign?

Bruce: This is probably the first truly independent electoral effort by a Black woman in South Carolina history. It is independent in the sense that my campaign is not operating under the umbrella of a political party. I have not announced that I am leaving the party; I consider myself to have left the primary process, not the party itself. Having Strom Thurmond as a past example, and Alaska’s Lisa Murkowski as a sitting senator who won as a write-in, lets voters see that there are other routes to victory.

South Carolina has never elected a Black woman to federal office. That puts us decades behind other states. New York elected Shirley Chisholm in 1968. Barbara Jordan of Texas, Yvonne Brathwaite Burke of California and Cardiss Collins of Illinois joined the U.S. House in 1973, and Carol Moseley Braun of Illinois became the first Black woman elected to the U.S. Senate in 1992. Indiana followed in 1982, Michigan in 1990, North Carolina, Georgia and Florida in 1992, Ohio in 1998, Wisconsin in 2004, Maryland in 2008 and Alabama in 2010. It’s long past time for South Carolina to catch up.

HistorianSpeaks: In your early voting address, you stressed the steps voters must take to cast a write-in ballot. What has been the biggest hurdle: convincing people a write-in is viable, or helping them navigate the ballot itself?

Bruce: For some voters, the “why” matters most. For others, it is whether I can win.

Voters who share a policy position with me that the other candidates don’t hold need only the “why.” They are glad to have someone to vote for. For voters worried about viability, I share my strategy for winning, point to the large share of voters who agree with my positions, explain why polls that leave candidates out by name are misleading, and invite them to join a revolutionary campaign that can produce revolutionary change.

Running this campaign has shown me how much the public’s view of write-ins resembles its view of third-party and independent candidates. Many people assume that only Republicans and Democrats are viable. Everyone else has to prove it, even candidates who are on the ballot. That bar is even higher for me, because I do not have ballot access this year.

I came to the write-in process without illusions. But I think the biggest hurdle is this: the South Carolina Election Commission recognizes my candidacy, because I followed its guidance and submitted a letter of intent, yet I am not on its online list of candidates. So I am left out of many news reports. The question becomes “Who’s on the ballot?” instead of “Who’s running for office?” I have had to do extra outreach to tell media outlets that I am in the race, and why.

That invisibility reaches into research, too. The 2026 candidate list of Rutgers University’s Center for American Women and Politics left me out. It also left out the Libertarian Party’s Senate nominee in South Carolina, who is a woman.

It reached the debate stage as well. South Carolina ETV, the state’s public broadcaster, organized a televised Senate debate in mid-October. It invited the Republican and Democratic nominees first, and only after they accepted did it invite my campaign and the third-party campaigns, which gave the two major candidates more time to prepare. I submitted information by the deadline showing that I met the criteria. SCETV excluded us for two reasons: we had not completed our Federal Election Commission reports, because of a computer hacking problem, and our coverage in The Root, Essence, Ebony and others did not meet the criteria because they appeared during the primary rather than the general election. The next week we asked SCETV to reconsider, sent updated information, and requested a deadline extension, which the criteria allowed. Although we showed that we met the criteria, we were not allowed on the stage.

Instead, we produced a livestream of the debate in which I answered the same questions alongside the candidates, much as Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s campaign did during the presidential debates. It aired at the same time as the SCETV debate on my X and Facebook, where several hundred people watched, and it reached about 2,600 views on our campaign’s YouTube channel. We have since taken the video down, but we produced and aired the program in order to serve the public interest and to uphold democracy by letting the voters hear and see all their U.S. Senate choices side by side.

Watch the debate she was kept out of: SCETV's October 11 Senate debate, with Dr. Annie Andrews, Sen. Darline Graham and Dr. Kasie Whitener, is online at [PBS](https://www.pbs.org/video/south-carolina-election-2026-us-senate-debate-fmir9m/). Bruce's own side-by-side livestream has since been taken down by her campaign.

HistorianSpeaks: Black voters make up a large share of South Carolina’s electorate. How has your campaign reached rural Black communities and the I-95 corridor, which statewide campaigns often take for granted?

Bruce: My campaign has visited almost every county, some more than once. I have also taken part in four gatherings in different parts of the state that are building an agenda by and for Black South Carolinians, focused on the needs of Black communities in both urban and rural areas.

Family Legacy and the Fight for Voting Rights

HistorianSpeaks: Your late father, Louis Fleming, chaired the Sumter County Council. What did growing up in his home teach you about grassroots Black political power in South Carolina?

Bruce: As children, we saw how many people called my father for advice or help. We also saw the challenges he faced as an outspoken advocate for justice. I am proudest of the example he set: reading Black history, acting to build Black political power in our state, and understanding that the same battles often have to be fought more than once.

HistorianSpeaks: Your forthcoming book explores your father’s role in voting rights litigation challenging at-large districts. With Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act weakened after Callais, what lessons from his fight apply to the redistricting battles across the South today?

Bruce: My forthcoming book, In the Footsteps of Louis Fleming: A Centennial Memorial Life Story, 1926–2026, examines a past remembered by the generation before us, when Black people were shut out of elected office and the remedy was to organize and go to court. South Carolina is still a place where people who speak up and take a stand, especially those outside the community’s elite, are branded troublemakers and radicals. But that kind of action was exactly what it took to challenge the local government, and it is what my father did.

In 2026, we face the irony that the law my father relied on to open the door to political participation for so many has been gutted. Many of the Black women and men elected to federal office won after the Voting Rights Act of 1965 became law.

South Carolina’s Black representation in Washington has benefited from the Act, but both Black South Carolinians elected to federal office have been men: Jim Clyburn in the U.S. House and Tim Scott in the U.S. Senate. No Black woman from South Carolina has ever been elected to federal office. After Callais, I fear the window for Black women to win federal office will narrow, and may close for the foreseeable future. The lesson is that we must stay intentional and unapologetic about increasing Black representation, and remove the roadblocks, outside our community and inside it, that stand in the way.

HistorianSpeaks: What prompted you to document your father’s story now, and what do you hope readers take away from that chapter of Sumter County and South Carolina history?

Bruce: After my father died in 2007, a family friend asked me to consider writing a book about him. I began going through the papers and books in his office and put together a draft. Then I set it aside to finish my previous book, The Sustainers: Being, Building and Doing Good Through Activism in the Sacred Spaces of Civil Rights, Human Rights and Social Movements, and to run for federal office in 2022. This year marks the 100th anniversary of my father’s birth, so I was determined to finish. The book should be ready within the next two weeks.

To my knowledge, there has never been a full biography of my father, so this adds his story to Sumter County and South Carolina history. The books I have found on voting rights in South Carolina come from academic presses and are written for scholars. I want mine to be read, understood and enjoyed by the general public. Beyond learning about my father, I hope people in Sumter learn that their community played a major role in a voting rights case, and that it inspires more activism.

Historic Preservation as Activism

HistorianSpeaks: In The Sustainers, you present historic preservation as civil rights work. Why is preserving physical places, such as the Modjeska Monteith Simkins House in Columbia, essential to Black historical memory?

Bruce: Anyone who steps into a sacred space of the civil rights and human rights movements knows immediately why it should be preserved. Whatever stage the preservation is in, I feel an energy, an electricity, in a house that was the setting for important events or the refuge of a significant figure, even one some of us met in person. That energy matters. Even more important is the thread it draws between past and present civil rights and social justice work. That connection is clearest when the building is still standing, which makes Black historical memory available to all of us. As a side note, I am also working with property owners and the City of Greenville to preserve the Reverend Jesse L. Jackson Sr. Birthplace in Greenville, South Carolina. We have applied to the South Carolina Department of Archives and History for a Historical Marker for the site.

HistorianSpeaks: Modjeska Simkins was known for her fearless independence in South Carolina politics. How do your preservation work and her example inform how you would govern as a senator?

Bruce: As a preservationist, sensitive to history, I would be committed to keeping and strengthening the protections that have allowed people to advance politically in a landscape with racial boundaries.

Simkins's niece, Henrie Monteith Treadwell, helped desegregate the University of South Carolina in 1963. Read our tribute, [Walking In: Henrie Monteith Treadwell (1946–2026)](/blog/henrie-monteith-treadwell-tribute-1946-2026).

I had the honor of meeting Mrs. Simkins and visiting her at home several times. I carry my memories of those visits, along with her plainspoken words quoted in a dissertation on her life. They hang like guiding stars in my mind and would light the way for me in the Senate.

Black Women, Coalitions and November 3

HistorianSpeaks: Black women are often described as the organizers and most dependable voters in Southern politics, yet they rarely receive statewide institutional backing. What support, and what resistance, has your campaign met?

Bruce: The support has come in bright, shining moments against a thick backdrop of resistance, puzzlement, anger, suspicion and isolation. One such moment came before I announced my write-in run, when I was still a Democratic contender ahead of the filing period. At least seven Black women from across the country had stepped up to run for the U.S. Senate, and we were seen: Jasmine Crockett of Texas, Priscilla Williams-Till of Mississippi, Col. Pamela Stevenson of Kentucky, Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton and Robin Kelly of Illinois, N’Kiyla Jasmine Thomas of Oklahoma and myself. Independent journalist Dejon Campbell made a video story about us that drew close to a million views and led to articles in Essence, Black Information Network, The Root and Ebony. Some of us reached out to give one another moral support during zoom meetings.

One of my questions once the primaries in other states started was, “What will happen to the seven of us? How many of us will make it through our primaries?” This question was a contributor to my decision to compete as a write-in: I wanted to do what I could to make sure that as many of us Black women made it through to the general election. Especially in light of losses by Kamala Harris and Jasmine Crockett, I hoped we would contribute to more voters and donors seeing Black women as viable candidates worth supporting, investing in, and holding hope for.

There are currently five of us Black women U.S. Senate candidates running in the general election: Lt. Governor Juliana Stratton of Illinois, Marquita Bradshaw of Tennessee, Rep. Angie Nixon of Florida, N’Kiyla Jasmine Thomas of Oklahoma and myself. We may be the largest number of Black women running in the general election for U.S. Senate in the nation’s history.

Of this group, I am the only one who is not a party nominee. But I am seeing that even those who managed to win their party primary and become the nominee still struggle for support. A recent episode of Win with Black Women, a network that held a major fundraiser for the Kamala Harris presidential campaign in 2024, hosted two of the Black Women U.S. Senate candidates, Lt. Governor Juliana Stratton and Rep. Angie Nixon. No other Black women U.S. Senate candidates were mentioned. Other articles are beginning to come out as election day nears. I would like to see more that come from a desire to see more Black female representation at the federal level, and to honestly and impartially explore what more might have been done to support the women who did not win their primaries, and what more might have been done to support those who did, but did not win the general election.

Two bright spots in my race are Run Sister Run PAC and Elect Black Women PAC, which both raised the visibility of Black women candidates, including me, and answered a great need for campaign infrastructure.

South Carolina lags decades behind other states in sending a Black woman to Washington. That in my view shows the need for more support for groups like Run Sister Run PAC and Elect Black Women PAC, which work to elect Black women, not only to get Black women to the polls to vote for whoever is the party nominee. We also need to decentralize and expand Black political power, so that more grassroots organizers help Black communities build collective power and create their own agenda that they can use to hold candidates and elected officials accountable, rather than concentrating power in the hands of a few Black elected officials.

HistorianSpeaks: For voters frustrated with national politics and wondering whether a write-in vote really counts, what is your message before November 3?

Bruce: I ask South Carolinians to join a collective effort to elect the Senate candidate who stands apart: a longtime activist with experience in anti-corruption work. I support Medicare for All and affordable, high-quality long-term care. I will work for an independent Palestine and an end to the U.S.-Iran-Israel war, and for a new relationship with Israel so that money now sent there can be reinvested in our state. I will work for reparative justice and will not throw any community under the bus. I am not new to civil, human and voting rights work, and I will continue it as your senator. I will rebuild good relations with our allies and restore environmental and energy protections.

If we work together and bring your friends and mine on board, we will win!

How to Write In a Candidate in South Carolina

Instructions from the South Carolina Election Commission, [scvotes.gov](https://scvotes.gov/voters/how-to-vote/).

Write-in votes are NOT allowed in political party primaries or for President and Vice-president. Ballots in all other elections and for all other offices feature a write-in space at the end of the list of candidates.

Casting a write-in vote on a touchscreen voting machine:

A candidate's name may be written in by touching the "write-in" space under the appropriate office. When the "write-in" space is touched, a "write-in" screen appears featuring a touchscreen keyboard. The voter types the name of the candidate using the keyboard and presses "accept" when finished. When accept is touched, the screen returns to the ballot, and the candidate's name that was entered will appear under the appropriate office.

Casting a write-in vote on a paper ballot:

A candidate's name may be hand-written in the space provided under the appropriate office. Voters may use a pen or pencil. The use of stickers or stamps to place a candidate's name on a ballot is not permitted. The candidate's name must be hand-written by the voter or person providing authorized assistance. After the voter writes the candidate's name in the space provided, the voter must also darken the oval next to the write-in line.

Connect with the Campaign

"To Preserve, Protect and Defend our Economy, our Democracy and our Civil Rights Through People Power"

• Website: catherineflemingbruce.com
• Donate: secure.anedot.com/catherine-fleming-bruce-for-united-states-senate/donatebrucenotgraham
• YouTube: youtube.com/@catherineflemingbruceussenate
• Facebook: facebook.com/share/1kqsPYYugc
• Instagram: @catherineflemingbruce_ussenate
• X (Twitter): @Bruce4USSenate
• Write: PO Box 50055, Columbia, SC 29250 · Call: 803-587-9712

Want more conversations like this one? Become a founding member of Black Thread for $9.99 a month, for life. Join here.

---