Alpha Kappa Alpha’s Courtney McClain Secures the Democratic Nomination in South Carolina’s 4th Congressional District

Courtney McClain, a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc., has won the Democratic nomination for South Carolina’s 4th Congressional District and will appear on the ballot in the November general election.

McClain, a Spring 2022 initiate of the Theta Gamma Chapter at the University of South Carolina, claimed the nomination after running uncontested in the June 9 Democratic primary, according to NBC News. She is a native of Spartanburg whose family has lived in the city for more than two centuries.

The 4th District covers parts of Greenville and Spartanburg Counties and has been held by Republican William Timmons since 2019. If McClain wins in November, she would become the first Black woman to represent South Carolina in Congress. She began her campaign at 24, and her campaign says that, at 25, she would be the youngest woman ever elected to the U.S. House.

McClain’s work in public service began at 19 in Spartanburg. She went on to serve as President of the South Carolina NAACP Youth and College Division, where she grew the number of active youth and collegiate chapters across the state. She has also worked as a Fannie Lou Hamer Government Relations Fellow with the Congressional Black Caucus Institute, a fellow with the HBCU Green Fund, and a congressional intern with the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation.

She earned a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism and Communications from the University of South Carolina in 2023 and a Master of Arts in Political Science from Howard University in 2025. Her advocacy in the South Carolina Legislature has centered on women’s reproductive health, public education, fair elections, gun discipline, and criminal justice reform. In 2022, she received the Martin Luther King Jr. Social Justice Award from the University of South Carolina.

As she carries her campaign toward November, McClain joins a long line of Alpha Kappa Alpha members who have answered the sorority’s call to service and leadership in their communities.