paragraph_text: The Alaska Bush, central Juneau, midtown and downtown Anchorage, and the areas surrounding the University of Alaska Fairbanks campus and Ester have been strongholds of the Democratic Party. The Matanuska-Susitna Borough, the majority of Fairbanks (including North Pole and the military base), and South Anchorage typically have the strongest Republican showing. As of 2004[update], well over half of all registered voters have chosen "Non-Partisan" or "Undeclared" as their affiliation, despite recent attempts to close primaries to unaffiliated voters.

paragraph_text: Ten African Americans have served in the U.S. Senate, four in the Republican Party. Two African Americans served as Senators from Mississippi during the Reconstruction Era and one from Massachusetts during the 1960s and 1970s. The remaining seven served more recently: six Democrats, three from Illinois (including Barack Obama) and one each from Massachusetts, New Jersey and California; and one Republican from South Carolina.

paragraph_text: The 1978 South Carolina United States House of Representatives elections were held on November 7, 1978 to select six Representatives for two-year terms from the state of South Carolina. The primary elections for the Democrats and the Republicans were held on June 13. All five incumbents who ran were re-elected, but the open seat in the 4th congressional district was taken by the Republicans from the Democrats. The composition of the state delegation after the elections was four Democrats and two Republicans.

paragraph_text: The South Carolina Gamecocks baseball team represents the University of South Carolina in NCAA Division I college baseball. South Carolina has perennially been one of the best teams in college baseball since 1970, posting 31 NCAA Tournament appearances, 11 College World Series berths, 6 CWS Finals appearances and 2 National Championships: 2010 and 2011. Carolina is one of six schools in NCAA history to win back - to - back titles. Since joining the Southeastern Conference in 1992, the team has competed in the Eastern division. South Carolina owns a stellar 32 - 18 record at the CWS, holds the NCAA record for consecutive wins (22) in the national tournament and the longest win streak ever at the CWS (12 in a row from 2010 to 2012) in which the Gamecocks played for national titles all three years.

paragraph_text: The following week, John Edwards won the South Carolina primary and finished a strong second in Oklahoma to Clark. Lieberman dropped out of the campaign the following day. Kerry dominated throughout February and his support quickly snowballed as he won caucuses and primaries, taking in a string of wins in Michigan, Washington, Maine, Tennessee, Washington, D.C., Nevada, Wisconsin, Utah, Hawaii, and Idaho. Clark and Dean dropped out during this time, leaving Edwards as the only real threat to Kerry. Kucinich and Sharpton continued to run despite poor results at the polls.

paragraph_text: Patrick J. Ballantine (born 17 March 1965 in Grand Forks, North Dakota), an attorney from Wilmington, North Carolina, was a Republican member of the North Carolina General Assembly, rising to become the Senate Minority Leader and the Republican Party's nominee for Governor in 2004.

paragraph_text: Ohio was won by Donald Trump by a margin of 8.1 points. Prior to the election, most news organizations considered the Buckeye State as leaning Republican, due to his appeal to blue collar voters in the rust belt. Ohio kept its streak of voting for the winner (a bellwether state) since 1964, as it voted for Trump, who won nationally. Having voted Democratic in 2012 and 2008, the win margin was the second largest of the states Trump flipped Red (after Iowa). It is also the largest victory margin since George H.W. Bush defeated Michael Dukakis in 1988. Ohio was an unprecedented 10 points more Republican - leaning than the nation in 2016.

paragraph_text: Schwarzenegger's endorsement in the Republican primary of the 2008 U.S. presidential election was highly sought; despite being good friends with candidates Rudy Giuliani and Senator John McCain, Schwarzenegger remained neutral throughout 2007 and early 2008. Giuliani dropped out of the presidential race on January 30, 2008, largely because of a poor showing in Florida, and endorsed McCain. Later that night, Schwarzenegger was in the audience at a Republican debate at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in California. The following day, he endorsed McCain, joking, "It's Rudy's fault!" (in reference to his friendships with both candidates and that he could not make up his mind). Schwarzenegger's endorsement was thought to be a boost for Senator McCain's campaign; both spoke about their concerns for the environment and economy.

paragraph_text: In the 2004 Democratic presidential primaries, John Kerry defeated several Democratic rivals, including Sen. John Edwards (D-North Carolina.), former Vermont Governor Howard Dean and retired Army General Wesley Clark. His victory in the Iowa caucuses is widely believed to be the tipping point where Kerry revived his sagging campaign in New Hampshire and the February 3, 2004, primary states like Arizona, South Carolina and New Mexico. Kerry then went on to win landslide victories in Nevada and Wisconsin. Kerry thus won the Democratic nomination to run for President of the United States against incumbent George W. Bush. On July 6, 2004, he announced his selection of John Edwards as his running mate. Democratic strategist Bob Shrum, who was Kerry's 2004 campaign adviser, wrote an article in Time magazine claiming that after the election, Kerry had said that he wished he'd never picked Edwards, and that the two have since stopped speaking to each other. In a subsequent appearance on ABC's This Week, Kerry refused to respond to Shrum's allegation, calling it a "ridiculous waste of time."

paragraph_text: Primary elections took place on June 13, 2017. Virginia utilizes an open primary, in which registered voters are allowed to vote in either party's primary election. The Democratic Party nominated Ralph Northam and the Republican Party nominated Ed Gillespie. The Libertarian Party nominated Cliff Hyra by convention on May 6, 2017.

paragraph_text: In the general election on November 7, 2017, Democratic nominee Ralph Northam defeated Republican nominee Ed Gillespie, winning by the largest margin for a Democrat since 1985. Northam will become the 73rd governor of Virginia, and take office on January 13, 2018. The election had the highest voter turnout percentage in a Virginia gubernatorial election in twenty years with 47% of the state's constituency casting their ballot.

paragraph_text: The candidate filing deadline for this gubernatorial race was on June 22, 2018, with primary elections being held on August 28, 2018. Florida uses a closed primary process, in which the selection of each party's candidates for a general election is limited to registered members of that party. Andrew Gillum won the Democratic primary, and Ron DeSantis won the Republican primary.

paragraph_text: Democrats were elected to the legislature and governor's office, but the Populists attracted voters displeased with them. In 1896 a biracial, Populist-Republican Fusionist coalition gained the governor's office. The Democrats regained control of the legislature in 1896 and passed laws to impose Jim Crow and racial segregation of public facilities. Voters of North Carolina's 2nd congressional district elected a total of four African-American congressmen through these years of the late 19th century.

paragraph_text: In the early 21st century, Republican voters control most of the state, especially in the more rural and suburban areas outside of the cities; Democratic strength is mostly confined to the urban cores of the four major cities, and is particularly strong in the cities of Nashville and Memphis. The latter area includes a large African-American population. Historically, Republicans had their greatest strength in East Tennessee before the 1960s. Tennessee's 1st and 2nd congressional districts, based in the Tri-Cities and Knoxville, respectively, are among the few historically Republican districts in the South. Those districts' residents supported the Union over the Confederacy during the Civil War; they identified with the GOP after the war and have stayed with that party ever since. The 1st has been in Republican hands continuously since 1881, and Republicans (or their antecedents) have held it for all but four years since 1859. The 2nd has been held continuously by Republicans or their antecedents since 1859.

paragraph_text: With incumbent President George Washington having refused a third term in office, incumbent Vice President John Adams from Massachusetts became a candidate for the presidency on the Federalist Party ticket with former Governor Thomas Pinckney of South Carolina as the next most popular Federalist. Their opponents were former Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson from Virginia along with Senator Aaron Burr of New York of the Democratic - Republicans. At this point, each man from any party ran alone, as the formal position of ``running mate ''had not yet been established.

paragraph_text: Kenneth Cromwell Hand (May 6, 1899 – April 9, 1988) was an American Republican Party politician and judge who served in the New Jersey State Senate. He was a candidate for the 1953 Republican nomination for Governor of New Jersey.

paragraph_text: North Carolina's party loyalties have undergone a series of important shifts in the last few years: While the 2010 midterms saw Tar Heel voters elect a bicameral Republican majority legislature for the first time in over a century, North Carolina has also become a Southern swing state in presidential races. Since Southern Democrat Jimmy Carter's comfortable victory in the state in 1976, the state had consistently leaned Republican in presidential elections until Democrat Barack Obama narrowly won the state in 2008. In the 1990s, Democrat Bill Clinton came within a point of winning the state in 1992 and also only narrowly lost the state in 1996. In the early 2000s, Republican George W. Bush easily won the state by over 12 points, but by 2008, demographic shifts, population growth, and increased liberalization in heavily populated areas such as the Research Triangle, Charlotte, Greensboro, Winston-Salem, Fayetteville, and Asheville, propelled Barack Obama to victory in North Carolina, the first Democrat to win the state since 1976. In 2012, North Carolina was again considered a competitive swing state, with the Democrats even holding their 2012 Democratic National Convention in Charlotte. However, Republican Mitt Romney ultimately eked out a 2-point win in North Carolina, the only 2012 swing state that Obama lost, and one of only two states (along with Indiana) to flip from Obama in 2008 to the GOP in 2012.

paragraph_text: In 2002, businessman Phil Bredesen was elected as the 48th governor. Also in 2002, Tennessee amended the state constitution to allow for the establishment of a lottery. Tennessee's Bob Corker was the only freshman Republican elected to the United States Senate in the 2006 midterm elections. The state constitution was amended to reject same-sex marriage. In January 2007, Ron Ramsey became the first Republican elected as Speaker of the State Senate since Reconstruction, as a result of the realignment of the Democratic and Republican parties in the South since the late 20th century, with Republicans now elected by conservative voters, who previously had supported Democrats.

paragraph_text: February 1: Iowa caucus (both parties) February 9: New Hampshire primary (both parties) February 20: Nevada Democratic caucuses and South Carolina Republican primary February 23: Nevada Republican caucuses February 27: South Carolina Democratic primary March 1: Super Tuesday: Primaries / caucuses for both parties in several states

paragraph_text: A special election for the United States Senate in Alabama took place on December 12, 2017, to fill a vacancy in the Senate through the end of the term ending on January 3, 2021, arising from the resignation on February 8, 2017, of Jeff Sessions to serve as U.S. Attorney General. Democratic candidate Doug Jones defeated Republican candidate Roy Moore by a margin of 21,924 votes (1.7%). Jones is the first Democrat to win a U.S. Senate seat in the state since 1992.

Question: Since what year have voters leaned Republican, in the state where the candidate who won the 2004 South Carolina Democratic primary was a senator?
Answer: 1976