SC voters: Who they will vote for as president and why
Hundreds of thousands of S.C. voters will cast their ballots Tuesday, saying who they want to be president.
Before then, however, The State newspaper asked a half-dozen S.C. voters to say who they support and why.
Whether they support Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton’s resume or GOP nominee Donald Trump’s tax policy, here’s what some had to say:
Clinton: ‘Qualified ... strong’
Age: 55+
Lives in: Columbia’s Lower Waverly neighborhood
Occupation: Retired educator
Family: Married
Education: S.C. State College, bachelor’s degree in education
Why Clinton? “Hillary Clinton is the most qualified of the two candidates that are running now. ... When she was running against President Barack Obama (in 2008), she came out first and I was for her then. But as soon as the president stepped out … then, of course, I changed my mind because I wanted to see the first black president in office before I died. … I like her because she’s a very strong, she’s a very determined woman.”
Trump: ‘Put a bull in the china shop’
Age: 62
Lives in: Columbia
Occupation: Landlord
Family: Married with six children, 14 grandchildren
Education: Rhodes College, bachelor’s in chemistry; St. Ambrose University, master’s in business administration
Why Trump? “I really feel that the collaboration between both of the parties’ elite – Republican and Democrat – and the cronyism that exists through all the entrenched politicians that have made Washington, D.C., their own, including media and lobbyists, have served to corrupt our system to such an extent that … the U.S. citizen and taxpayer is no longer being well served. We need someone like Trump who can come in and drain that swamp. … We need someone who has thick skin. There is a part of voting for Donald Trump that rubs against my grain. … The only way to break this up is to put a bull in the china shop and that would be Donald Trump. I’m willing to take that risk for my grandchildren.”
Clinton: ‘I just can’t vote for Donald Trump’
Age: 19
Lives in: Columbia
Education: University of South Carolina student, studying exercise science
Why Clinton? “I’m voting for Hillary, mainly, because I just can’t vote for Donald Trump. He’s too much of a bigot. ... He really is a farce. ... He’s lying his way through an election, just feeding on people’s fears and really what they want to hear. People are fed up. They really want a change. Middle-class people in this country, small business owners, they really want change. They want the taxes to be lower. ... The Affordable Health Care Act is a great act but Congress needs to work together – Republicans and Democrats need to work together – to fix it. It doesn’t need to be repealed. Hillary, I think she knows the issues a lot better than Donald Trump. She has 30 years worth of experience in the government where Donald Trump hasn’t even held an elected office in his life. ... I don’t think he’s going to get anything done.”
Trump: ‘Shares the same values that I have’
Age: 41
Lives in: Rock Hill
Occupation: Owns a body shop
Family: Married, one child
Education: Rock Hill High School
Why Trump? “He shares the same values that I have. ... He supports law enforcement. He’s not politically correct, which I can appreciate. Do I like everything about him? Absolutely not – who could? But as far as values on immigration, law enforcement, strengthening our military, those are the things that are most important to me. The main thing is our Supreme Court nomination. That’s going to really shape our future.”
Clinton: ‘She’s learned so much’
Age: 70
Lives in: Columbia
Family: Married with 2 children, 10 grandchildren
Occupation: Retired executive director, Family Connection of South Carolina
Education: Bachelor’s degree in journalism
Why Clinton? “I can’t think of anybody better than Hillary Clinton to be our next president. One, I think it’s great to have a woman president like so many other forward-thinking countries have had. But two, she’s got the background. She’s got the knowledge. She is brilliant. Just a wonderful education, not only as a law student, but also as a student of what’s going on now in the world. She has not just served. She’s learned so much that will keep our country safe. ...
“I’m hoping that she’ll be strongly elected along with other Democrats who will work with the Republicans to have the country move forward and get over some of the hatred that’s been spewed about in this ,,, campaign.”
Trump: ‘Save America as we know it’
Age: 68
Lives in: Town of Lexington
Occupation: Broker-in-charge/owner of Wood Realty
Family: Married, two children, five grandchildren
Education: Brookville High School
Why Trump? “It’s not necessarily the person that I’m concerned about as much as the message of Donald Trump and his conservative policies for the future of America. I feel that this is the last opportunity to vote and save America as we know it today. His conservative values for freedom of worship, freedom of speech, law and order, all are part of the plan to get America back to our conservative values and to uphold the Constitution of this country.”
Voting ‘other’
Eight presidential candidates will be on S.C. ballots, including Libertarian Gary Johnson and the Green Party’s Jill Stein. Here’s what a Stein support had to say:
Age: 58
Lives in: Simpsonville
Occupation: Self-employed
Family: Married, two kids, two granddaughters
Education: Glynn Academy in Brunswick, Ga.
Why Stein? “I find the other two dominant choices just completely unacceptable. But if I’m being honest, even if Democrats or Republicans had put up someone that I considered to be acceptable, they work within a system that is just so unacceptable and predictably corrupt that even good people wind up being corrupted and doing bad things.”