STATEHOUSE REPORT | ISSUE 23.45 | Nov. 8, 2024
BIG STORY: S.C. GOP celebrates red wave as Dems look for answers
MORE NEWS: McMaster names new state Medicaid director
LOWCOUNTRY, Ariail: We’re not going back
BRACK: Trump’s election leaves many S.C. women frightened
SPOTLIGHT: S.C. Institute for Independent Journalism
MYSTERY PHOTO: Wrapped
FEEDBACK: Endorsements do matter
S.C. GOP celebrates red wave; Dems seek answers
By Jack O’Toole, Capitol Bureau | South Carolina voters on Tuesday were just like everybody else across the nation – only more so, turning what was already a very good election day for Republicans into an unprecedented Palmetto State blowout.
From the Upstate to the Lowcountry, the numbers were eye-popping.
At the top of the ticket, former GOP President Donald Trump crushed Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris 58%-40%, besting his 2020 S.C. results by 6 points on his way to a convincing national victory.
In congressional races, Republicans retained control of six out of seven seats, with Third District GOP newcomer Sheri Biggs defeating Democratic challenger Byron L. Best 71%-26% to replace retiring Republican U.S. Rep. Jeff Duncan. Other notable races included 1st District U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace’s easy win over Lowcountry businessman Michael Moore, and Midlands U.S. Rep. Joe Wilson’s 12th defense of the 2nd District seat he first won in a special election after the death of U.S. Rep. Floyd Spence in 2001.
At the Statehouse level, Republicans held onto their historic 2022 gains in the House and picked up four seats in the Senate, knocking off incumbent Sens. Kevin Johnson (D-Clarendon), Vernon Stephens (D-Orangeburg), Gerald Malloy (D-Darlington) and Mike Fanning (D-Fairfield). And while the Malloy and Fanning races are likely to go to automatic recounts on Nov. 14 due to the closeness of the final vote, Republicans will hold supermajorities in both chambers next year regardless of the results, with at least 32 of 46 votes in the Senate and 87 of 124 votes in the House. .
Finally, in local races, Republicans gained 13 county council seats, five county sheriffs, four clerks of court, three coroners, one probate judge and one auditor.
With Tuesday’s results, S.C. Republicans now control eight of nine seats in the state’s federal delegation, all nine statewide constitutional offices, supermajorities in both houses of the legislature, the mayor’s office in S.C.’s four largest cities and a clear majority on the state Supreme Court.
As one Democratic insider put it to Statehouse Report this week: “Republicans now hold unchecked power in the state of South Carolina.”
GOP reacts … and starts making plans
At a Wednesday press conference in Columbia, S.C. GOP Chair Drew McKissick called the results “an incredible testament” to the quality of Republican candidates and campaign workers.
“From the Lowcountry to the Pee Dee to the Midlands to the Upstate, South Carolina continues to realign its electoral politics with its traditional conservative philosophy,” McKissick told reporters. “The results speak for themselves.”
“Moreover,” he added, after running through a long list of Republican pick-ups, “no Republican incumbents anywhere in this state lost their election yesterday – none whatsoever.”
Gov. Henry McMaster was equally ebullient on Wednesday, calling Trump’s win “a tremendous victory.” In 2016, McMaster was the first statewide Republican elected official to endorse the New York real estate developer for president.
“I think we’re going to have four great years and I’m very pleased,” he said. “There’ll be a lot of changes, a lot of positive direction, and I think this time it will be with a lot more smiles than before.”
Closer to home, McMaster said he looks forward to working with the new GOP supermajority to move his priorities forward.
“There are a lot of things we still need to do,” he said. “We’ve got to have [higher] teacher pay. We’ve got to have a trained police officer in every school.… We’ve got to keep cutting those taxes.”
Statehouse leaders echoed McMaster’s forward-looking sentiments, with House Speaker Murrell Smith (R-Sumter) promising “conservative legislation that strengthens our state,” and Senate Majority Leader Shane Massey (R-Edgefield) saying he’ll work with his new supermajority to “champion conservative victories that make South Carolina an even better place.”
Some Democrats say problems run deep
State Democratic Party officials tended to focus on campaign mechanics in their post-election comments, noting to reporters that their best field and communications efforts were washed away in a red tidal wave. But some Democratic operatives said they thought the problems ran even deeper.
“These national results show how out of touch some of the elites in the Democratic Party have become,” Charleston-based Democratic strategist Lachlan McIntosh told Statehouse Report. “Democratic messaging did not sufficiently address the issues that voters care about most, and that’s a problem.”
That failure to put voters’ concerns first, he argued, was a major factor in the red wave that washed across the country and broke hardest in places like South Carolina.
“Voters are concerned about issues like higher grocery prices, this fear of illegal immigration and a very deep unease with the way they perceive the country is headed culturally,” McIntosh said. “And at the end of the day, those issues meant more than all of Donald Trump’s faults combined.”
Reached Thursday for comment, longtime S.C. Democratic operative Trav Robertson told Statehouse Report he was hesitant to make any final judgments before certified results were available, but shared his general concerns about what he sees as an unwillingness among top Democrats to take the fight to Republicans.
For instance, he pointed to the ease with which Republicans were able to gerrymander congressional and state legislative seats after the 2020 census.
“The most disillusioning thing I’ve ever been a part of in my years in politics was the redistricting process in South Carolina,” Robertson said. “The Democrats didn’t put up a fight at all and they didn’t create a record that could be used in court, and there’s no excuse for it.”
But even more broadly, Robertson wonders how a Democratic Party that prides itself on its civility can compete in a fractured media environment where falsehoods spread faster than fact checks.
“How do you win elections against people who lie and don’t tell the truth?” Robertson said. “And how do you win elections when a significant portion of the voters find it easier to believe something that’s not true as opposed to researching the truth? You tell me.”
State Democrats will next have a chance to answer those questions in 2026, when South Carolinians go to the polls to elect a gubernatorial replacement for the term-limited McMaster.
- Have a comment? Send to: feedback@statehousereport.com.
McMaster names new state Medicaid director
By Jack O’Toole, Capitol bureau | Gov. Henry McMaster appointed Eunice Medina to replace retiring S.C. Health and Human Services (SCHHS) Director Robert Kerr at a Thursday press conference in Columbia. SCHHS oversees the state’s Medicaid program.
Medina, who still must be confirmed by the S.C. Senate, is currently the agency’s chief of staff. Prior to that, she spent 20 years as a Medicaid administrator with the state of Florida.
“She is a real pro,” McMaster told reporters. “She’s been around every aspect of this kind of work for her entire career.”
In her remarks, Medina praised the accomplishments of her predecessor in expanding care while achieving major cost savings, noting that Medicaid now covers 60% of children in the state.
“For the last 20 years, I have dedicated my career to working in Medicaid,” Medina said. “Thank you again Governor McMaster for the faith you have shown in me by nominating me for this position. I look forward to earning this position through the confirmation process.”
Earlier this year, McMaster vetoed a legislative health-care study that would have included a look at expanding Medicaid to cover an additional 300,000 South Carolinians, with the federal government picking up 90% of the tab under the Affordable Care Act (ACA).
“I remain unconvinced that the expansion of Medicaid benefits — which this legislative study committee is tasked with considering — is necessary, nor do I believe it is fiscally responsible,” McMaster said at the time.
South Carolina is one of only 10 states that has not expanded Medicaid since passage of the ACA in 2010.
In other recent news
S.C. executes Moore despite broad pleas. The state put convicted murderer Richard Moore to death Friday despite pleas from his trial judge, jurors and the state’s former top jailer to commute his sentence to life in prison.
McMaster declares state of emergency in response to flash flooding. Gov. Henry McMaster issued an executive order declaring a state of emergency for South Carolina to assist the state’s response to flooding in the Midlands and portions of the Lowcountry.
43 monkeys escape from an S.C. medical lab. Forty-three rhesus macaque primates escaped from the Alpha Genesis facility Wednesday in South Carolina but the nearby police chief said there is “almost no danger” to the public.
New data shows sudden drop in S.C. overdose deaths. After years of rising drug overdose deaths in South Carolina, newly released data shows a hopeful change. This comes as South Carolina has made more of an effort to increase availability and educate people about naloxone, an opioid overdose reversal drug.
S.C. considers buying land for two nature reserves. About 3,000 acres in the Pee Dee and near the Georgia border that the state Department of Natural Resources got approval to consider last month could be added to a network of more than 70 protected heritage preserves across the state, chosen because of their cultural or natural significance.
Foster parents needed throughout S.C. Statewide, the number of youth in the foster system has decreased according to the Department of Social Services, despite the number of children in the foster system going down.
Charleston voters say no on sales tax referendum. Charleston County voters sent a solid “no” message Tuesday to Charleston County Council on its request to extend a half-cent sales tax to raise billions for road and other projects. In other local referenda results:
We’re not going back
Nationally award-winning cartoonist Robert Ariail always has an interesting take. This week, he takes on Daylight Savings Time (and kind of pokes fun at Trumpism at the same time).
What do you think … love it or hate it? Did he go too far, or not far enough? Send your thoughts to feedback@statehousereport.com.
Trump’s election leaves many S.C. women frightened
Commentary by Andy Brack | Lots of thinking women across South Carolina are scared by the election of Donald Trump to the White House. And they should be: His election signals a throwback era for misogyny and control in more ways than one. We should listen to their voices, not just the roar of red Republicanism in Washington.
Already, there are reports that women are stockpiling abortion pills and gender-affirming medications ahead of what one person called a “reproductive apocalypse” that they fear is coming under the new Trump administration, The Guardian reported.
“There has been a recurring theme among people like [incoming Vice President] J.D. Vance and his mentor and advisor, Peter Thiel, that denigrates women who make their own choices, whether about pregnancy or marriage or careers or how they vote,” one Columbia advocate noted. “People who fear change from 1950’s traditional roles and those who just fear women line up behind them. I wish these folks had sought counseling instead of political power.”
And while women see their reproductive health threatened – yet again by men making decisions about what they can do with their bodies on birth control and more – bigger societal issues are looming.
“This election was a referendum on men’s unwillingness to give up power and willingness to hold on at any cost,” said one disappointed Columbia progressive advocate. “We saw how easily they were willing to kick out women who are speaking truth to power during the primaries here in South Carolina.”
Women also worry about how a red wave of politics across the country will promote more inequality and limitations in a nation where women earn significantly less than men doing similar jobs. They worry that the election of Trump, a convicted felon, will boost violence against women, including rape.
“To ignore fundamental issues like [Trump’s] felony convictions, a court finding of sexual assault, his intention to take care of women whether we want it or not, has emboldened the fragile egos of the male electorate and those women they still control. I am afraid for our country, colleagues, friends and family.”
Another Charleston leader, who asked not to be named, lamented how South Carolina women are worn out by election politicking after a big loss earlier this year when the state legitimized a fetal abortion ban. That, she said, ignored women’s calls for reproductive health freedom. But there’s more.
“The worst of it are the consequences to individual women across this state who are the people behind our horrible domestic violence, maternal health, poverty and infant mortality rates. Why care about addressing a statistic in this state when you can avoid responsibility by blaming those in the statistics for the problem?
“It is time to be like geese and build a flock of women and men, young and old, with resources (not just financial) and who have the relationships and the trust to lead or hang back when needed by your flock.”
One male leader in Columbia added, “We are already in MAGA heaven and diminished human rights hell. It remains to be seen if federal measures more stringent than the ones already in place in South Carolina will take effect. There is some hope that the Trump reality will set in on the Republican women who believed him.”
When another longtime advocate for women’s rights was asked what she thought the Greatest Generation that defeated Nazis would take away from the election, she said they’d be “rolling in their graves.
“Less than 100 years after they defeated fascism, it has sprung up again where they would have least expected it.”
Many women who think about these things see a tough four years ahead for equality and fair treatment.
“Misogyny clearly played a role in getting Donald Trump elected twice,” an Upstate analyst noted. “Women are more likely to be poor than men, partly from discrimination, partly from interrupted careers and the responsibilities of motherhood, especially for single mothers.”
Andy Brack is editor and publisher of Statehouse Report and the Charleston City Paper. Have a comment? Send to: feedback@charlestoncitypaper.com.
S.C. Institute for Independent Journalism
Statehouse Report is brought to you for free thanks to underwriters like the South Carolina Institute for Independent Journalism, which supports the development and production of independent and nonprofit news in South Carolina to promote democratic ideals.
SCIIJ achieves its mission by providing financial and organizational support to community publications; operating civic engagement initiatives; training promising journalists; and producing bold independent journalism.
[button] MYSTERY PHOTO [/button]
Wrapped
Here’s a really mysterious photo. What and where in the world is it? Send your name, hometown and guess to: feedback@statehousereport.com.
Last week’s mystery, “Blowin’ in the wind,” showed smoke billowing from the stacks at the International Paper mill in Georgetown. It will close at the end of the year, throwing almost 700 people out of work. The mill has been in operation for more than 85 years.
Will Williams of Aiken noted, “This will be a huge loss for Georgetown as IP was one of the largest employers in the county. My parents did not work there, but I had friends who had parents and grandparents that worked there. Some of my childhood friends work there and will be short a few years from being able to retire.”
Lots of readers identified the mill, including Allan Peel of San Antonio, Texas; Gwen Stickland of Marion; Wayne Beam of Georgetown; Bill Segars and Don Clark, both of Hartsville; David Lupo of Mount Pleasant; Nancy Barksdale, Joe Whetstone, Jay Altman, John Hart and Elizabeth Jones, all of Columbia; Lester Dempsey of Charleston; Jacie Godfrey, Pam McDaniel and Barry Wingard, both of Florence; Steve Willis of Lancaster; George Graf of Palmyra, Va.; and Frank Bouknight and Daniel Prohaska, both of Summerville.
- Send us a mystery picture. If you have a photo that you believe will stump readers, send it along (but make sure to tell us what it is because it may stump us too!) Send to: feedback@statehousereport.com and mark it as a photo submission. Thanks.
Endorsements do matter
To the editor:
I enjoyed reading your editorial about the importance of continuing newspaper editorial endorsements!
– Tom Ervin, Greenville, S.C.
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We encourage you to send in your thoughts about policy and politics impacting South Carolina. We’ve gotten some letters in the last few weeks – some positive, others nasty. We print non-defamatory comments, but unless you provide your contact information – name and hometown, plus a phone number used only by us for verification – we can’t publish your thoughts.
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