The bulk of its population lives on the South Carolina side of the Charlotte metropolitan area, including the rapidly growing cities of Rock Hill, Fort Mill, and Lake Wylie.

However, few of the area's Democrats can be described as liberal by national standards; most are fairly conservative on social issues, but less so on economics.

Following Mulvaney's confirmation as the Director of the Office of Management and Budget, a special election was held in 2017 to determine his successor.

Republican Ralph Norman narrowly won the special election against Archie Parnell.

[3] From 2003 to 2013 the district included all of Cherokee, Chester, Chesterfield, Darlington, Dillon, Fairfield, Kershaw, Lancaster, Marlboro, Newberry and York counties and parts of Florence, Lee and Sumter counties.