All of the slut-shaming and the mud-slinging didn’t work. South Carolina voters showed today that they’re tired of the dirty politics in their state, and that they’re ready for real reform. Nikki Haley won the South Carolina runoff, and is now the GOP gubernatorial nominee. Tim Scott also claimed victory; if elected this November, he’ll be South Carolina’s first black congressman in over a century.

Nikki Haley, an Indian-American woman, won the Republican nomination for governor and Tim Scott, a black lawmaker, grabbed a commanding lead in his bid for the GOP nod for a House seat in South Carolina primary runoffs Tuesday, a measure of racial progress in the Deep South and the GOP.

Voters in Utah, North Carolina and Mississippi decided on their final nominees for November.

With her victory, state Rep. Haley moved one step closer to becoming the first female governor in the conservative-leaning state. She brushed aside allegations of marital infidelity and an ethnic slur to come within a percentage point of winning the gubernatorial nod on June 8. And with 31 percent of the precincts reporting in the runoff, she led with 54 percent of the vote to Rep. Gresham Barrett’s 45 percent.

Scott, also a state lawmaker, hoped to become South Carolina’s first black GOP congressman in more than a century. Scott, who has the backing of several Republican leaders in Washington, led Paul Thurmond, the son of the late U.S. Sen. and former segregationist Strom Thurmond in Tuesday’s runoff. The GOP-leaning district stretches down the Carolina coast and includes Fort Sumter where the first shots of the Civil War were fired.

If elected to the House, Scott would be the GOP’s first black lawmaker since Oklahoma’s J.C. Watts retired in 2003.

What didn’t Nikki Haley have to endure? Good Lord, the establishment Republicans attacked Haley with a ferocity that I’ve only ever seen directed towards one other politician: Sarah Palin. She’s endured ethnic slurs, accusations of infidelity, and questions about her religion. It all backfired and catapulted Haley into the national spotlight. She became one of the most popular politicians in the country, and probably thanks in large part to the sympathy many Americans likely felt for her.

Between Nikki Haley and Tim Scott, then tomorrow morning the GOP is going to have one hell of an angle to push. Racist tea partier southern rednecks? Obviously not. The party of the old, southern, rich white men that liberals and Meghan McCain like to say is the GOP is no more.

Oh, and let’s also remember another fun fact about the elections tonight: both Nikki Haley and Tim Scott are Sarah Palin endorsed.

UPDATE: And another incumbent bites the dust. Bob Inglis was easily defeated by prosecutor Trey Gowdy. Inglis is now the third House incumbent to lose a re-nomination bid.