State's voters say they would choose the comedian to replace Jim DeMint but governor Nikki Haley says it won't happen

This article is more than 7 years old

This article is more than 7 years old

Stephen Colbert, the Puck of American politics, is the top choice of South Carolina voters to replace outgoing senator Jim DeMint, according to new numbers from Public Policy Polling.

Colbert, the popular Comedy Central satirical news host, leads the field of Senate contenders with a 20% share of respondents naming him as their top pick, PPP said. His closest competition, Republican Tim Scott, nabbed 15%.

Governor Nikki Haley, a Tea Party darling, will appoint DeMint's replacement before Congress reconvenes in the new year. DeMint is leaving the Senate to run a conservative thinktank, the Heritage Foundation .

The chances of Haley naming Colbert to the Senate are indistinguishably close to zero. She is expected to pick Scott, a congressman entering his third term; another congressman; or former state attorney general Henry McMaster.

Colbert, however, who grew up in Charleston, South Carolina, shows impressive strength on paper, besting a prospective field that includes former governor Mark Sanford (8%) and the governor's former wife, Jenny (11%). It helps that the primetime satirical news show host has his own ready-made political machine. Last Thursday he urged his audience to tweet messages at Haley asking her to appoint him.

"When I look at the US Senate I think to myself, you know what they could use?" Colbert mused. "Another white guy."

Haley, an unpopular governor who had visible fun as a guest on Colbert's show in April, poured cold water on the host's Senate bid on Facebook:

Stephen, thank you for your interest in South Carolina's US Senate seat and for the thousands of tweets you and your fans sent me. But you forget one thing, my friend. You didn't know our state drink. Big, big mistake.

During Haley's appearance, Colbert, under duress, failed to name South Carolina's state drink, which is milk.

Haley rejected calls Monday afternoon that she appoint a "placeholder" senator who would pledge to serve for only two years and not seek election to the seat in 2014. Such a move would take the governor out of her kingmaker role in deference to the normal course of statewide elections.

"While I am an avid supporter of term limits, I do not want the effectiveness of our state's new US senator to be undermined by the fact that he or she will automatically be leaving the office such a very short time after assuming it," Haley said in a statement.

Despite his lead in PPP's contest, Colbert's polling numbers may not be as strong as they appear. In 2010, mystery Democrat Alvin Greene, who displayed such lack of polish as a candidate that theories circulated of a Republican conspiracy to stand him for office, lost to DeMint – but still managed to win 28% of the general election vote. The current PPP survey polled Democrats and independents as well as Republicans.

Colbert's name recognition alone could account for his polling performance in an upstart field of relative unknowns.