Scrutinel— 2026 midterms

UpdatedOct 10, 2026, 11:27 AM EDT
To election day24 days
Simulations200,000

South Carolina 1st District

Currently held by a Republican · open seat

Democrat
Nancy Lacore
44%
Republican
Jenny Costa Honeycutt
56%
ForecastTilt R
Projected margin
R+1.3
80% range
R+13.8 to D+11.2
Partisan lean
R+11.8
Tipping-point chance
0.96%
Uncertainty multiplier
2.01×

The 80% range comes from 200,000 simulations in which this race’s error is correlated with every other race through the national, state and demographic layers.

How the estimate is built
Fundamentals >99.9%
Polling average
no polls
Fundamentals
R+1.2
Blended
R+1.2
Similar-race shift
+0.6
Polling

No public polling of this matchup. The forecast rests on fundamentals plus the polling residuals of demographically and politically similar races — which is the normal case: most of the 435 House seats are never polled.

Fundamentals
Partisan lean
R+11.8
Elasticity
0.99
Incumbency
0.0
Candidate experience
0.0
Fundraising
+2.7
National environment
D+7.1
Expected margin
R+1.8
How it voted for presidenttwo-party
2024 margin
R+13.3
2020 margin
R+8.8
Shift 2020 → 2024
R+4.5
Votes cast, 2024
401,148

Presidential results reaggregated onto the 2026 district lines. This is where the seat’s partisan lean comes from, and it carries most of the forecast in a race nobody has polled.

Who lives hereCensus ACS
Population
570,538
Median age
50.6
Median household income
$85,000
Bachelor’s degree or higher
41%
White
71%
Black
17%
Hispanic
7%
Asian
3%

Used to find demographically similar districts, so a race with no polling can borrow the polling error of races that look like it.

Campaign fundraisingFEC filings to Invalid Date
CandidatePartyRaisedCash on hand
Nancy LacoreDEM$2.3M$412k
Jenny Costa HoneycuttREP$556k$79k

Receipts across the cycle, from FEC bulk filings. The model uses the ratio between the two sides rather than either total, and weights it lightly — money follows a competitive race at least as much as it causes one.

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