EXCLUSIVE: Education, race relations top agenda for SC Democrats, poll shows

Improving education and race relations should be at the top of the agenda for any S.C. Democratic candidate for governor, a new poll says.

An issue of less importance? Abortion rights, according to a Winthrop Poll question about S.C. Democrats asked exclusively for The State newspaper.

The poll asked 832 likely S.C. Democratic primary voters to rate how important six issues should be to a Democratic candidate for governor. Other issues the poll asked Democrats to rate on a 1-to-10 scale – a 10 being one of the most important issues, a 1 being unimportant – were Medicaid expansion, gun control and repairing roads.

The results suggest S.C. Democrats hold many of the same values as Democrats nationally. But they also reflect differences within the S.C. party, with progressive Democrats differing from more socially conservative Democrats on some issues, including abortion.

Education is a perennial top issue for Democrats nationally and in South Carolina, said Winthrop Poll director Scott Huffmon. “Clearly it’s something they want a gubernatorial candidate to push.”

All of the issues asked about by Winthrop have dominated recent debates in the S.C. State House.

▪  Lawmakers have been ordered by the S.C. Supreme Court to improve public education, an issue legislators are expected to take up when they return to Columbia in January.

▪  The racially motivated massacre at an African-American church in Charleston led to the removal of the Confederate flag from State House grounds and calls for stricter gun control measures.

▪  The shooting of an unarmed black man by a white North Charleston police officer raised questions about race relations and propelled the passage of a bill laying the groundwork for police officers statewide to have body cameras.

▪  With billions of dollars needed for road improvements – even before last month’s flooding – lawmakers say the state’s crumbling infrastructure will be a top priority in January.

▪  Democrats continue to push to expand Medicaid in the state, but the Republican-controlled Legislature opposes the idea.

▪  Even abortion – the issue that piqued the least interest among S.C. Democrats – has sparked legislative efforts as Republicans have pushed to limit access to the procedure.

Education always a top priority

Seventy-five percent of those surveyed said improving education should be one of the most important issues – a 10 – for a Democratic candidate for governor.

The results are in keeping with a traditional S.C. Democratic values, said Huffmon and other observers.

For decades, S.C. Democratic gubernatorial candidates have built their campaigns around educational issues. Last year, Republican Gov. Nikki Haley also made a plan to spend more on education a central part of her re-election campaign.

“Education is a proxy for economic opportunity,” said former S.C. Gov. Jim Hodges, a Democrat from Lancaster.

Hodges was the last Democrat to hold the Governor’s Mansion, winning election in 1998, in part, on his promise to start a state lottery to pay for college scholarships and some added K-12 spending.

“People understand that lack of wage growth is the biggest struggle we face right now, and that’s directly tied into education achievement and education levels,” Hodges said.

In the poll, 92 percent of African-American Democrats rated improving education as a 9 or 10 in importance – with 10 being the most important issue. That response was the highest rating that any demographic – race, age or gender – gave on any issue.

“African-Americans who have grown up in South Carolina ... understand that the gateway to the middle class is education,” said S.C. Democratic Party chairman Jaime Harrison, the party’s first black leader.

“I’m a prime example of that,” Harrison said, adding he was the first in his family to go to college.

The high value that black Democrats place on education also could be explained by the fact that many of the state’s poor, rural school districts are in black communities.

“The fact is that, in many of our rural and African-American communities, the schools tend to be underfunded and struggle,” said state Sen. Vincent Sheheen, the Kershaw Democrat who ran unsuccessfully for governor in 2010 and 2014.

Guns, race hit close to home

Sixty-four percent of those surveyed said improving race relations should be a top priority to a Democratic candidate for governor.

Meanwhile, 59 percent of those surveyed said gun control should be a top issue, making those issues the second- and third-most important to S.C. Democratic voters.

Those results are not surprising, given recent events, pollsters and state Democratic leaders said.

South Carolina has taken steps to address some concerns about race relations.

For example, lawmakers voted to remove the Confederate flag from the State House grounds after Dylann Roof, who faces the death penalty for the racially motivated killings of nine blacks in a Charleston church, was pictured with the flag in photos online. And, after Walter Scott, an unarmed black man, was shot and killed by a white police officer, lawmakers passed a bill paving the way for police across the state to have body cameras.

Even with those steps, S.C. Democratic voters are “interested in hearing what a gubernatorial candidate will do to improve race relations beyond bringing the (Confederate) flag off the State House grounds ... a first, not a final, step,” said Winthrop’s Huffmon.

Democrats, especially African-Americans, “want to hear it (race relations) talked about in the next race,” he said.

Expanding Medicaid not the highest priority

Slightly more than half of the Democratic voters polled – 55 percent – said expanding Medicaid should be a top priority for a candidate for governor.

Huffmon said he thought interest in that issue “would be higher simply because the Democratic elected officials are always talking about it.”

Democrats have railed against Republicans for refusing to take federal money to expand Medicaid to more low-income South Carolinians under the Affordable Care Act. But, with a GOP-controlled Legislature, Democrats have little chance of winning expansion.

The Medicaid question also found a racial difference in how S.C. Democrats perceive the issue.

While 74 percent of African-Americans surveyed rated Medicaid expansion a 9 or 10 in importance, only 48 percent of whites said the same, reflecting how poverty impacts the races differently.

Abortion ‘not a flashpoint issue’

Nationally, Democrats have been vocal in their support of Planned Parenthood, a women’s health care nonprofit that performs abortions.

But S.C. Democrats see abortion rights as less important for a gubernatorial candidate. Only 36 percent of those surveyed said abortion rights is one of the most important issues a candidate for governor should push.

The low interest could be because S.C. Democrats see abortion rights as “settled law,” said Harrison, the state party chairman. “It’s not that we don’t feel passionate about it. ... We’ve fought that battle.”

Sheheen, the former candidate for governor, said abortion is not a key issue for S.C. Democrats for a number of reasons.

“The Southern Democratic Party is probably the last ‘big tent’ party in the country. ... It has both pro-life and pro-choice, and all shades in between,” said Sheheen, a pro-life Catholic.

Other issues are far more pressing, he said.

“When the kid’s not getting an education and your grandma can’t get health care and your roads are falling apart, you tend not to focus on the issues that the national media focus on,” Sheheen said.

Pollsters said there is one more factor at play.

“I don’t think it hurts Democratic candidates one way or the other” whether they make abortion rights an issue in a campaign, said Carey Crantford, a Democratic pollster based in Columbia. “In terms of statewide in South Carolina, it’s just not a flashpoint issue.”

In part, that is because “Southern Democrats tend to pattern a lot more conservative on some of the key social issues,” said Crantford. They also view issues like abortion through “a more conservative lens than you might find among northeastern Democratic voters.”

As a result, a Democratic candidate might steer clear of making an issue of abortion rights, knowing that “it cuts a jagged edge across the (Democratic) electorate,” Crantford said.

This story was originally published November 7, 2015 at 2:02 PM with the headline "EXCLUSIVE: Education, race relations top agenda for SC Democrats, poll shows."