By 1910, theSouth Carolina Democratic Partyhad split into two factions: the well-to-do farmers with ties toClemson College,and the tenant farmers who largely did not benefit from many of the proposals instituted byBenjamin Tillmanand his followers. Many of these poor farmers escaped the fields to the relative prosperity of a mill town.Coleman Livingston Blease,a lawyer fromNewberry,sought to portray himself as the candidate for the downtrodden and oppressed white man who had not benefited from the Tillman era. Blease and prohibitionist candidateClaudius Cyprian Featherstoneemerged as the front runners in the Democraticprimaryon August 30. Featherstone and his conservative allies attacked Blease for his coarse behavior, similar toA.C. Haskell's attacks on Tillman in thegubernatorial election of 1890,but once again the attacks only strengthened the candidacy of the antagonist. On September 13, Blease won by just over 5,000 votes in therunoffto essentially become the next governor of South Carolina because there was no opposition in the general election.
^Glashan, Roy R. (1979). "South Carolina gubernatorial elections".American Governors and Gubernatorial Elections, 1775-1978.Meckler Books. pp. 284–285.ISBN0-930466-17-9.
