South C’s port posts a record season as Governor Dukes heads for the exit — and Merriweather promises more of the same

The port of South C moved more cargo this summer than in any season on record, the state’s port authority reported Wednesday, capping the tenure of Governor Harlan Dukes, who is term-limited and leaves office in January after eight years.

Dukes expanded the port twice, held the line on the state income tax and redrew the coastal flood maps after two hard storm seasons — a record that has made him one of the more popular governors in the Union. “We didn’t raise a single tax to do it,” he told reporters on the docks. “That’s not a slogan. That’s the budget.”

Lieutenant Governor Caroline Merriweather, the Republican nominee to succeed him, is running on continuity: no income-tax increase, port jobs and a tough-on-crime plank that polls well outside the coastal cities. Her Democratic opponent, state senator Marcus Delaine, is running on flood-insurance relief and teacher pay, and says the port’s growth has not reached the inland counties.

South C leans Republican and has not elected a Democratic governor in a generation, but Delaine’s flood-insurance message has found an audience on the coast, where premiums doubled after the new maps. Most forecasters still rate the race solidly Republican. Ours is on the Elections page.