Your SC politics briefing
Welcome to your weekly South Carolina politics briefing, a newsletter curated by The State’s politics and government team.
Quick note: More than 130,000 South Carolinians have already cast their ballot as of Wednesday for the Nov. 8 election after early voting opened this week. On the first day alone, more than 42,000 people cast their ballot. This is the first general election with no-excuse early voting since the Legislature adopted early voting this year.
And there’s definitely a lot of interest in people voting early, so much that the State Election Commission’s website crashed Monday because of a spike in traffic to the site.
Statewide SC races head to final stretch
▪ Governor’s race:
Republican Gov. Henry McMaster and Democratic challenger Joe Cunningham met in their only debate Wednesday.
But it was McMaster’s comments about same-sex marriage that raised eyebrows.
If the US Supreme Court overturned its ruling in the Obergefell v. Hodges case, which legalized same-sex marriage, McMaster said he would follow state law, which defines marriage as between a man and a woman.
“I don’t care who you love or you don’t love, or who you live with, or what you want to do. That is as your business. But I think marriage is a special institution and that designation ought to be reserved for a man and a woman,” McMaster said.
The two also clashed on abortion restrictions.
For months, Cunningham has said McMaster wants to ban all abortion without any exceptions, pointing to the governor’s comments in May when the Dobbs decision was first leaked by Politico.
McMaster later said the exceptions in the state’s six-week law are reasonable.
“I believe people what they say the first time,” Cunningham said Wednesday with Fran Coyle, who had an abortion after she was raped at 12 years old. “I take people at their word. Gov. McMaster is no exception.”
The chirping at each other continued into Thursday.
“Joe Cunningham said more things that were erroneous and wrong last night, I couldn’t keep up with all of them,” McMaster said.
Read more: In final stretch ahead of SC governor’s election, here’s where the money race stands
Read even more: ‘Experience is the best teacher’: McMaster urges SC voters to look at his record, not age
▪ Superintendent race:
Four months after backing her opponent in the GOP primary, state Superintendent Molly Spearman this week endorsed Ellen Weaver, the Republican nominee for schools chief.
“I have known Ellen Weaver for nearly a decade and have been impressed with her work ethic, willingness to reach out to others and listen, and strong desire to make meaningful change for the students and teachers of our state,” said Spearman, a Republican who has served as South Carolina’s top education official since 2015, but opted not to seek reelection.
The endorsement disappointed supporters of Democratic nominee Lisa Ellis, a Richland 2 educator and founder of grassroots teachers group SC for Ed, who knocked Spearman for supporting a non-educator who only recently completed the coursework for a master’s degree.
In a statement Tuesday, Spearman made clear her support of Weaver had been contingent on the completion of her master’s degree — a requirement to hold the office — which she finished in an accelerated six-month timeline that critics have called into question.
Spearman’s endorsement came a day after former Gov. Nikki Haley and Republican US Rep. Nancy Mace announced their support for Weaver at a fundraising event in Charleston.
Former Republican State Superintendents Mick Zais and Barbara Nielsen also have endorsed Weaver, while former Democratic state schools chiefs Jim Rex and Inez Tenenbaum are supporting Ellis.
Weaver and Ellis will square off Nov. 2 in a televised debate.
Closing arguments next up in redistricting case
Witness testimony in the trial over South Carolina’s new congressional map has laid bare the political motivations behind its creation.
While redistricting is an inherently political process, especially when officeholders draw their own lines, state lawmakers had not previously acknowledged the extent to which partisan interests drove mapping decisions.
But as Senate Majority Leader Shane Massey, R-Edgefield, testified earlier this month, politics was not just a factor, it was crucial to the map’s construction.
“The Senate was not going to pass a plan that sacrificed the 1st (District),” he testified, referring to the coastal congressional district represented by Republican U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace, which in recent years has become a swing district.
Drawing a map that gave Democrats a better chance to win that seat would have been “political malpractice,” he said bluntly.
Massey and other Republican lawmakers copped to their own partisan aims to defend from charges that the map intentionally discriminated against Black voters, as the South Carolina chapter of the NAACP has alleged.
Buzz Bites
▪ A Citadel cadet who admitted to joining the Capitol riot on Jan. 6 has pleaded guilty. He will be sentenced in March.
▪ The University of South Carolina is rebranding, dropping the “of” in UofSC, the state’s flagship college announced.
▪ A Richland 2 school board member has paid back the district after upgrading her hotel room at a school board conference last month, including an additional pet-cleaning fee.
▪ Sherry East, the president of the South Carolina Education Association, appeared on the Oct. 21 episode of “The Problem” with Jon Stewart to discuss state incentives given to employers and how it affects school districts.
▪ State-owned electric utility Santee Cooper plans to build a natural gas plant in Hampton County to replace the Winyah coal-fired plant in Georgetown.
▪ President Joe Biden appointed South Carolina native Derrick Scott to the National Board for Education Sciences. Scott helped establish the Molecular Diagnostics Laboratory at Delaware State University.
▪ Sen. Lindsey Graham says if he’s forced to testify about 2020 election interference in Georgia before a grand jury, it would “create chaos,” the Rock Hill Herald reported. Graham made those comments the same day US Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas put a temporary freeze on his subpoena to testify.
Mark your calendar
Nov. 2
SC superintendent candidate televised debate, 7 p.m.
Nov. 5
Deadline vote early in SC’s general election
Nov. 8
SC’s general election
Dec. 6-7
SC House organizational session
Before we adjourn
As we noted earlier in the newsletter, we’re in the homestretch of the campaign.
It means candidates are traveling around the state with more frequency to drum up support.
McMaster and Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette have a 19-stop bus tour scheduled to kick off Sunday. The Cunningham campaign has publicized rallies Tuesday through Saturday of next week.
Walk-up or walk-off songs often become a candidate’s theme song for the campaign. You probably could make a decent playlist just of campaign songs.
In 2016, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s walk-off music was “Fight Song” by Rachel Platten.
Former President Donald Trump liked to play “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” by the Rolling Stones.
So if you’re at a rally before Nov. 8, here’s a taste of what you might hear.
▪ McMaster: “I Like It, I Love It” by Tim McGraw
▪ Cunningham: “Brand New” by Ben Rector
▪ Evette’s walk-up music is to be determined
▪ Tally Casey, lieutenant governor nominee: The theme of “Top Gun Maverick” (fitting for a former fighter pilot)
▪ Bonus track: Sen. Tim Scott: “Let it Whip” by Dazz Band
Pulling the newsletter together this week was Joseph Bustos, reporter on The State’s politics and state government team.
You can keep up with him on Twitter and send him tips on Twitter at @JoeBReporter or by email jbustos@thestate.com. To stay on top of South Carolina politics and election news, you can chat with us on Facebook, email us tips and follow our stories at scpolitics.com.
