The 126th General Assembly of South Carolina will have many new faces when they assemble in January to begin a two-year session.

Republicans will have a supermajority in both the SC Senate and House of Representatives. Republicans flipped four Senate Democratic seats while not losing any of the existing Republican seats. They maintained their previous supermajority in the House. 

A supermajority eases the ability to overcome filibusters and gubernatorial vetoes. It will make it much easier to mover Republican sponsored legislation through both bodies. Updating the Joint and Several statute – a main priority of IIABSC – should be on the list for early consideration.

The Senate will hold an organizational meeting on December 4 to select committee assignments but the leadership of the Senate Banking and Insurance Committee is not expected to change.

In the House of Representatives, the Labor, Commerce and Industry committee (which reviews all insurance legislation) will have a new chairman as long-time chairman Bill Sandifer of Seneca was defeated in the June primary. At least half of the current LCI is expected to be replaced due to committee members losing elections, retiring from the House or moving to another committee. We also expect the LCI Insurance Sub-committee to have new leadership in 2025.

The House of Representatives holds their organizational session on December 3.