D.C. to see fresh set of faces from S.C. voters

COLUMBIA -- South Carolina voters picked at least three new members of Congress on Tuesday in elections that had the state's longest-serving representative facing a tough challenge and the continued reverberations of one politician's shout at the president.

Three open seats will send the most new politicians from the state to Congress since 1974.

Rep. Jim Clyburn won another term, Jeff Duncan won the 3rd District seat, Trey Gowdy won in the Upstate, Joe Wilson held off a tough challenge and others were too close to call at press time.

One familiar face will be returning among those new candidates: House Majority Whip Clyburn, who represents the 6th District, was elected to a 10th term against Republican Jim Pratt and Green Party candidate Nammu Muhammad.

Clyburn has been the House Majority Whip since 2006 and before that was the leader of the Congressional Black Caucus.

Clyburn raised nearly $3 million, while Pratt raised $23,000. But the Democrat took no chances, putting up billboards around his district and running TV ads.

In the 4th District, anchored by Greenville and Spartanburg, Republican Gowdy, 46, was looking for the seat he opened by trouncing Rep. Bob Inglis in the GOP primary. He defeated 63-year-old Democrat Paul Corden and several third-party candidates.

With 64 percent of the votes counted, Gowdy had about 63 percent of the votes compared to 30 percent Corden received.

In the 3rd District, left vacant when Rep. Gresham Barrett made an unsuccessful run for the Republican gubernatorial nomination, four-term GOP state Rep. Duncan defeated FedEx pilot Jane Dyer. Dyer lost in 2008 to Barrett. The district runs along South Carolina's western border from Anderson to Aiken.

Duncan is a four-term state legislator who wants to end Social Security for Americans currently being born and wants to change the Constitution so children of illegal immigrants born in the U.S. aren't automatically granted citizenship.

Meanwhile, the longest-serving U.S. House member, 68-year-old Democrat John Spratt, had a hard-fought campaign for a 15th term against Republican state Sen. Mick Mulvaney.

Spratt's district has not elected a Republican since 1883, but a national conservative push was helping the 43-year-old Mulvaney in his bid to unseat the House budget chairman.

With 64 percent of the vote counted, Mulvaney led Spratt 54 percent to 46 percent.

The most expensive congressional race in state history was wrapping up in the 2nd District, where Republican U.S. Rep. Joe Wilson won in a rematch against Democrat Rob Miller, a former Marine. With about 91 percent of the precincts reporting, Wilson had 54 percent of the vote to Miller's 43 percent.

Wilson, 63, won the 2008 election with 54 percent of the vote, but in 2009 made national headlines by shouting "You lie!" at President Obama during a health care speech to a joint session of Congress.