Sixth Congressional District

Democratic U.S. Rep. Jim Clyburn should breeze toward re-election Tuesday as he faces the weakest test of his 20-year career in Washington.

There is no Republican opponent and the only challenger is regular Green Party hopeful Nammu Muhammad, a Columbia activist.

The seemingly free ride to an 11th term against means Clyburn has been able to spend more of his time stumping for President Barack Obama than fretting election night.

Clyburn, 72, has represented the state’s majority black 6th District since 1992, never facing a serious November threat. The seat cuts across swaths of the state’s rural interior and includes parts of Charleston and other sections of the Lowcountry not covered by 1st District Republican U.S. Rep. Tim Scott.

He is the only Democrat in South Carolina’s congressional delegation.

In the weeks leading up to Tuesday, Clyburn’s travel schedule listed stops in North Carolina, Florida and Ohio — key battleground states — for speaking appearances and other Obama re-election work. “We have a tremendous opportunity to pick up four or five seats” in Congress, he said.

He pointed to federal stimulus packages, health care reform and the Charleston Harbor deepening as some of his contributions from the last term.

Muhammad, 60, calls himself “a citizen soldier” enlisted to represent the lower rungs of society. He has ran for office several times before, advocating for the poor and disenfranchised.