The son of a beloved late State Senator and a State Representative himself, Joel Lourie took a huge gamble and gave up his safe seat to run for the State Senate seat vacated by Republican incumbent Warren Giese. Lourie was a well-funded candidate whose roots ran incredibly deep in the district. However, he ended up facing the best candidate Republicans could put against him when Ken Wingate defeated Giese’s son, Barney, in the Republican Primary of that year.
 
Lourie hired CRS to conduct benchmark polling, tracking polls, and a comprehensive phones program for the campaign. We ended up helping on other items and consulting on things like TV ads, direct mail pieces, etc. The race was literally an epic tug-of-war between the two with Lourie gaining an advantage, then Wingate coming back, etc. To further complicate the matters, even Republican Governor Mark Sanford came out campaigning hard for Wingate appearing in direct mail and a large number of TV ads.
 
For every challenge thrown his way, Lourie just dug his heels in deeper and kept fighting against all the odds. And, on Election Night, Lourie out-polled every Democrat in his district and vanquished his Republican opponent by a 56-44 margin. The victory provided Democrats with the net one-seat pick-up they ended up pulling off in the upper chamber of the Legislature that year.