James Enos Clyburn (born July 21, 1940) is an American politician serving as the U.S. representative for South Carolina's 6th congressional district. First elected in 1992, Clyburn is serving his 17th term, representing a congressional district that includes most of the majority-black precincts in and around Columbia and Charleston, as well as most of the majority-black areas outside Beaufort and nearly all of South Carolina's share of the Black Belt. Since Joe Cunningham's departure in 2021, Clyburn has been the only Democrat in South Carolina's congressional delegation as well as the dean of the state's delegation since 2011 after fellow Democrat John Spratt lost re-election.
Clyburn was the third-ranking House Democrat, behind Nancy Pelosi and Steny Hoyer, from 2007 until 2023, serving as majority whip behind Pelosi and Hoyer during periods of Democratic House control, and as assistant Democratic leader behind Pelosi and Hoyer during periods of Republican control. He was majority whip from 2007 to 2011 and again from 2019 to 2023 and also House assistant Democratic leader from 2011 to 2019 and again from 2023 to 2024. After the Democrats took control of the House in the 2018 midterm elections, Clyburn was re-elected majority whip in January 2019 at the opening of the 116th Congress, alongside the reelected Speaker Pelosi and Majority Leader Hoyer, marking the second time the trio has served in these roles together.
In the 2022 midterm elections, Republicans gained control of the House, and Pelosi retired as leader of the House Democratic Caucus. In the 2022 United States House of Representatives Democratic Caucus leadership election, Clyburn successfully sought the position as House assistant Democratic leader, rather than that of Democratic whip.
Clyburn played a pivotal role in the 2020 presidential election by endorsing Joe Biden three days before the South Carolina Democratic primary. His endorsement came at a time when Biden's campaign had suffered three disappointing finishes in the Iowa and Nevada caucuses and the New Hampshire primary. Biden's South Carolina win three days before Super Tuesday transformed his campaign, helping him secure the Democratic nomination and later the presidency.
Clyburn was born in Sumter, South Carolina, the son of Enos Lloyd Clyburn, a fundamentalist minister, and his wife Almeta (née Dizzley), a beautician. A distant kinsman was George W. Murray, an organizer for the Colored Farmers Alliance (CFA), who was a Republican South Carolina Congressman in the 53rd and 54th U.S. Congresses in the late 19th century. He and other black politicians strongly opposed the 1895 state constitution, which essentially disenfranchised most African-American citizens, a situation the state maintained for more than half a century until federal civil rights legislation passed in the mid-1960s.
Clyburn graduated from Mather Academy (later named Boylan-Haven-Mather Academy) in Camden, South Carolina, then attended South Carolina State College (now South Carolina State University), a historically black college in Orangeburg. He joined the Omega Psi Phi fraternity and graduated with a baccalaureate in history.
In his first full-time position after college, Clyburn taught at C.A. Brown High School in Charleston, South Carolina.
Clyburn became involved in politics during the 1969 Charleston hospital strike. After assisting the settlement of the protests at the Medical University of South Carolina, he became involved in St. Julian Devine's campaign for a seat on the Charleston city council in 1969. Clyburn came up with the campaign's slogan, "Devine for Ward Nine". When Devine won the race, he became the first African American to hold a seat on the city council since Reconstruction. Clyburn later credited that campaign as the reason he got into electoral politics.
After an unsuccessful run for the South Carolina General Assembly, Clyburn moved to Columbia to join the staff of Governor John C. West in 1971. West called Clyburn and offered him a job as his advisor after reading Clyburn's response to his loss in the newspaper. After West appointed Clyburn as his advisor, Clyburn became the first nonwhite advisor to a governor in South Carolina history.
In the aftermath of the 1968 Orangeburg massacre, when police killed three protesting students at South Carolina State, West appointed Clyburn as the Commissioner of the South Carolina Human Affairs Commission. He served in this position until 1992, when he stepped down to run for Congress. The Orangeburg massacre and civil-rights protest predated the 1970 Kent State shootings and 1970 Jackson State killings, in which the National Guard at Kent State, and police and state highway patrol at Jackson State, killed student protesters demonstrating against the U.S. invasion of Cambodia during the Vietnam War.
U.S. House of Representatives (1993–present)
After the 1990 census South Carolina's district lines were redrawn. Due to prior racial discrimination before the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the Supreme Court required the 6th district, which had previously included the northeastern portion of the state, to be redrawn as a black-majority district. The 6th was reconfigured to take in most of the majority-black areas near Columbia and Charleston, as well as most of the Black Belt. Five-term incumbent Robin Tallon's home in Florence stayed in the district, but he chose to retire. Five candidates, all of whom were African American, ran for the Democratic nomination for the seat. Clyburn's campaign was led by NAACP activist Isaac W. Williams.
Clyburn won 55% of the vote in the primary, eliminating the need for a runoff. As expected, he won the general election in November handily, becoming the first Democrat to represent a significant portion of Columbia since 1965 and the first Democrat to represent a significant portion of Charleston since 1981. He was the first African-American to represent South Carolina in Congress since George W. Murray in 1893. He has been reelected 15 times with no substantive Republican opposition.
For his first 10 terms, Clyburn represented a district that stretched from the Pee Dee through most of South Carolina's share of the Black Belt, but swept west to include most of the majority-black precincts in and around Columbia and south to include most of the majority-black precincts in and around Charleston. After the 2010 census, the district was pushed well to the south, losing its portion of the Pee Dee while picking up almost all of the majority-black precincts near Beaufort and Hilton Head Island (though not taking in any of Beaufort or Hilton Head themselves). The reconfigured 6th was no less Democratic than its predecessor. In all its incarnations as a gerrymandered black-majority district, it has been dominated by black voters in the Columbia and Charleston areas, and for much of that time has been the only safe Democratic district in the state.
In 2008, Clyburn defeated Nancy Harrelson, 68% to 32%. In 2010, he defeated Jim Pratt, 65% to 34%. In 2012, Clyburn defeated Anthony Culler, 73% to 25%.
In March 2024, Clyburn announced his run for re-election. Duke Buckner, who ran against Clyburn in 2022, defeated Justin Scott in the June Republican Primary. Gregg Marcel Dixon, who ran against Clyburn as a Democrat in 2022, switched to the United Citizens Party for his 2024 run for the seat. Alliance Party candidate Joseph Oddo and Libertarian candidate Michael Simpson have also filed for the seat. In November 2024, Clyburn won re-election with 59.5% of the vote.
On March 12, 2026, Clyburn announced his run for re-election.
Clyburn ranked number 19 on the Post and Courier Columbia's 2025 Power List.