DeMint emerges on top in S.C. GOP runoff

COLUMBIA, S.C., June 23 (UPI) -- In South Carolina, U.S. Rep. Jim DeMint has won the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate, having trounced former Gov. David Beasley in the runoff.

DeMint, a three-term member of the U.S. House, had finished second to Beasley in the GOP's crowded June 8 primary. On Tuesday, DeMint vaulted over the one-term former governor to win in what some observers are calling a landslide, winning 59 percent of the vote to Beasley's 41 percent. Beasley emerged on top in the June primary, winning 37 percent of the vote while DeMint, at 26 percent, narrowly edged out Charleston, S.C., real estate developer Thomas Ravanel, who took 25 percent of the vote.

DeMint, who is now considered the favorite, takes on state Superintendent of Education Inez Tenenbaum in the general election. Tenenbaum, the only Democrat currently holding statewide elective office in South Carolina, won the nomination without opposition. Incumbent U.S. Sen. Ernest "Fritz" Hollings, D-S.C., is retiring.