Staff reports | State Sen. Brad Hutto, the Orangeburg Democrat elected to lead the Senate Democratic Caucus, said members would be relevant despite a shrinking minority.
Earlier this month, three veteran Democrats — Sens. Vincent Sheheen of Camden, Floyd Nicholson of Greenwood and Glenn Reese of Spartanburg — lost re-election campaigns. In January, Republicans will have a larger Senate majority with 30 of 46 seats.
“Even though our numbers are down, we still owe it to all of South Carolina to prove the other side of the issues,” Hutto said, adding that Democrats and Republicans in the Senate have worked well together for years on a variety of issues.
“It’s important that those policy differences be given significant voices. We’re going to work hard on that,” he said, emphasizing the caucus’s focus on improving education, health care, wages and more.
Also in recent news:
Execution scheduled but no drug available. The state of South Carolina has scheduled what would be its first execution in nearly a decade on Dec. 4, but corrections officials said they don’t have any lethal injection drugs to do so. The prisoner’s attorneys are seeking a stay of execution for various reasons, including a contention that the state is withholding information about its execution methods which keeps the prisoner from making an informed decision about execution options. Read more.
Virus numbers remain high. South Carolina health officials reported 1,410 new cases of COVID-19 Thursday and 17 confirmed deaths. Out of 9,729 tests reported, 14.5 percent were positive. Almost 4,000 South Carolinians have died from the disease.
State set voting records. State elections officials say 1.3 million registered voters cast absentee ballots — shattering the previous record of 503,000 in the 2016 general election. The presidential election also set the highest turnout percentage since 2008 with 72 percent of registered voters casting ballots. More.
Clyburn re-elected. U.S. Rep. Jim Clyburn, D-S.C., was re-elected unanimously to his leadership position in the U.S. House this week. He will continue to serve as the House majority whip, the third-most powerful role in the House. He told reporters he would focus on the growing COVID crisis, infrastructure and health care. Read more.
Harrison may be next in line. While Democratic candidate Jaime Harrison raised more than $100 million in his campaign against Republican incumbent U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, he lost. But Harrison, a former assistant leader of the Democratic National Committee, got national attention with the campaign and it is in position to lead the Democratic National Committee, The Atlantic reported.
Wrong track. AP VoteCast found that 46 percent of South Carolina voters said the U.S. is on the right track and 53 percent of voters said it is headed in the wrong direction. VoteCast also found that, in South Carolina’s heated U.S. Senate race, Democratic challenger Jaime Harrison had the edge over incumbent Lindsey Graham with voters under 45. More.
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