Popular incumbent Republican Senator Strom Thurmond, won re-election against Democratic challenger Elliott Springs Close for a seventh full term in office.

Elliott Springs Close, a 43-year-old political novice from Columbia, entered the Democratic primary and faced opposition from black photographer Cecil J. Williams.

Close was a wealthy heir of a textile business, a brother-in-law of President Clinton's chief of staff Erskine Bowles, who styled himself as a fiscal conservative and a social moderate.

[citation needed] The South Carolina Republican Party held their primary on June 11, 1996, and the contest pitted 93-year-old incumbent Senator Strom Thurmond against two relatively unknown candidates.

Secretary of State James Miles was the only Republican statewide official who had not endorsed Strom Thurmond and it was rumored that he was considering entering the primary.

Close ran television advertisements that highlighted the age issue by declaring that although Thurmond had admirably served the state for over fifty years, it was time for someone new to represent South Carolina.