The 2nd runs from the coast up the Georgia border and into central South Carolina, button-hooking north around Columbia and scooping up some of the capital city. State and local government are the Columbia area’s largest employers, but the private sector is growing, and health care also is an important industry in the 2nd. On the Georgia border, the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site nuclear complex, which is shared with the 3rd, provides many area jobs.

Smaller towns and rural areas dot the land between Columbia and Hilton Head, which is a hot destination for retirees and tourists. Many families in Allendale, Hampton and Jasper counties live below the poverty line, relying on tenant farming and sharecropping. Military issues are important here. Just up the shore from swank resorts, recruits sweat at the Parris Island Marine Corps Recruitment Depot. Fort Jackson in Richland County in the north and Beaufort Marine Corps Air Station also contribute to the district’s heavy military presence.