Staff reports | Vice President Kamala Harris on Wednesday encouraged students to vote in powerful numbers as she promoted their importance in the coming 2024 election during her appearance at the College of Charleston.
“Right now, in South Carolina we are looking at a situation where state legislators basically passed a law that would try to dilute the Black vote in the state,” the vice president said. “It is wrong that any elected official would try to choose who can vote for them, when it should be the voter who chooses who represents them.”
The Wednesday visit was part of Harris’s “Fight For Our Freedoms” tour in which she makes stops at colleges and universities across the country to connect with young people ahead of the 2024 election. Young voters were a critical coalition for Harris and President Joe Biden in 2020 as they won 61% of voters between the ages of 18 and 29, according to AP VoteCast.
During the event at the College of Charleston’s Sottile Theatre, Harris addressed several topics, including reproductive freedom, gun safety, climate action and LGBTQ+ equality.
“You have been confronted with issues that many generations before you haven’t seen,” she said. “You all have only known a climate crisis. You all have only known active shooter drills. You all became aware of injustices when you witnessed what happened to George Floyd.
She also addressed a looming U.S. Supreme Court over a South Carolina case involving alleged racial gerrymandering (see below).
“You all, in your lifetime, just witnessed the highest court in our land take a constitutional right that had been recognized such that many of you will know fewer rights than your mother or grandmother.”
In other South Carolina News:
U.S. Supreme Court may restore voting map ruled a racial gerrymandering. In a South Carolina case before the U.S. Supreme Court involving gerrymandering, race and partisanship, justices signaled they may restore a map from redistricting that continues to favor Republicans in the First Congressional District. A panel of lower court judges ruled the map unconstitutional.
U.S. Justice Department awards millions to enhance services for crime victims. The Department of Justice is awarding more than $4.4 billion in grants to support community safety across the U.S., centered around reducing violence and crime.
Biden administration sending $997M to S.C. from bipartisan infrastructure law. The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Highway Administration has allocated $997 million to South Carolina for 12 formula programs to support investment in critical infrastructure, including roads, bridges and tunnels, carbon emission reduction, and safety improvements, as well as workforce development to support these investments.
S.C. school report cards show academic gains, but rising violence. South Carolina schools improved in almost every major academic subject last school year, according to the state report cards released Oct. 10. But more students are fighting and missing class than in recent years.
Corrections department believes it has to fix illegal cellphones in S.C. prisons. Law enforcement connects a multitude of crimes, ranging from drug trafficking to attempted murder to a deadly prison riot, with a common thread: South Carolina inmates getting their hands on cellphones behind bars.
S.C. nuclear plant gets warning over cracked emergency fuel pipe. Small cracks have been found a half-dozen times in the past 20 years in pipes that carry fuel to emergency generators at the V.C. Summer plant near Columbia, leading federal officials to issue warnings over substantial safety violations.
The money behind the Charleston school board. It didn’t cost that much for conservatives to take over the Charleston County school board, as donations to the five candidates in the freshly elected Moms For Liberty-backed majority raised $127,444.94, according to an analysis of campaign disclosure reports on file with the S.C. State Ethics Commission.
We Can Do Better, South Carolina!