McMaster praises people of the Lowcountry during GOP campaign stops in Bluffton, Beaufort

With less than a week before the midterm election, Republican Gov. Henry McMaster came to Beaufort County on Wednesday to rail against his opponent, Democrat Joe Cunningham, and the party’s leader, President Joe Biden.

“They’ve gone off the scale. If they were a railroad, they’d be in a ditch somewhere,” said McMaster, who is seeking a second term as governor.

He held a rally at the Okatie Ale House, 25 William Pope Drive, in Bluffton, alongside his running mate for lieutenant governor Pamela Evette, and later appeared at a rally in Beaufort.

At the Bluffton rally, McMaster said the Palmetto State is particularly patriotic, which can be seen in South Carolinian’s caring for their neighbors before blasting the Biden administration. Biden, he said, was not authorized to set vaccination mandates and lacks strict border patrol laws, resulting in a “disaster.”

“We got nothing but cooperation from the Trump administration, then here came the Biden administration and all that changed,” he said. “They have a completely different view of what they’re supposed to do.”

About 100 McMaster people gathered outside of the restaurant in varying shades of red and other pro-McMaster gear to show their support. Some kept cool with patriotic American flag hand fans while others shielded themselves from the sun underneath hats and sunglasses. A member from the McMaster camp handed out signs with the names of the governor and lieutenant governor on them.

“He loves to see them,” she said while passing them out.

The governor and lieutenant governor were joined on stage by U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace, R-Charleston; 14th Circuit Solicitor Duffie Stone; Beaufort County Sheriff P.J. Tanner, and Barbara Nielson, chairman of the Beaufort County Republican Party.

The most talked-about topic following an Oct. 27 debate that pitted McMaster against Democratic challenger Joe Cunningham was same-sex marriage. A 2015 Supreme Court decision ruled same-sex marriage bans were unconstitutional. McMaster said he believed marriage should be “between a man and a woman.” Cunningham said his opponent was taking the state back to “the 1950s.”

“I don’t think I don’t care who you are or who you love,” Cunningham said. “I don’t think it is the government’s role to be getting in the middle of that. And I don’t think it is the politician’s role to be ripping away freedoms from people.”

Mace, the 1st Congressional District congresswoman, is running for reelection against pediatrician Dr. Annie Andrews, the Democratic nominee. At Wednesday’s rally, Mace urged the crowd to “keep South Carolina red,” stating that her opponent wants to defund police and border patrol and supports gender-affirming surgery for minors.

“I didn’t know what woke was until Annie Andrews got into the race,” she said. “She doesn’t even know how to pay for health care. If we don’t win this seat, that’s what we are going to get in Congress.”

In an Oct. 19 debate, Andrews said she did not support gender-affirming surgeries on minors and never has but, as a pediatrician, has seen transgender youth come to the hospital because they have tried to harm themselves as a result of bullying.

“I have had enough of this bigoted, hateful rhetoric from our congresswoman,” she said.

During his closing remarks, McMaster said he has put billions into fixing infrastructure and water and sewer in rural areas in South Carolina.

“Be sure to vote ... but also any time you get a chance to talk to the children, tell them that this place, South Carolina, is the best place in the whole world to live, work and raise a family,” he said.

The Bluffton stop was part of a six-day swing through the state. Later, he appeared at a rally at Freedom Park in Beaufort.

Rallying by the waterfront

McMaster’s campaign bus headed straight across the Broad River to downtown Beaufort. The day’s second rally transpired under the shadows of an enormous American flag, displayed across the front of 1011 Bay Street.

The governor tackled a host of topics for the new crowd, speaking out against “unconstitutional” vaccine mandates and mocking Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, who McMaster claimed could not define “woman” during her confirmation hearing for the U.S. Supreme Court.

“Some people have just gone crazy,” McMaster said, sparking applause across the hundreds of attendees. “We don’t do crazy here. We use common sense.”

Joining McMaster at the podium were David Bartholomew, an anti-growth candidate for District 2 of the Beaufort County Council and Shannon Erickson, the Republican representative of S.C. House District 124 running for reelection.

Among the sea of pro-McMaster and Republican merchandise were three silent protesters draped in a darker shade of red. Dressed in outfits from Margaret Atwood’s dystopian novel “The Handmaid’s Tale,” the women’s sign denounced Erickson’s anti-abortion voting record: “No forced birth. No Shannon Erickson.”

McMaster told The Island Packet and Beaufort Gazette he thinks one of the most prominent issues for Beaufort County voters is environmental protection, especially the conservation of the state’s southern barrier islands.

But the Lowcountry is nothing without its people, he emphasized throughout the event.

“The people around the country that I speak to say that’s the reason they’re coming here: Because of the people. It all boils down to the people,” he said.