Will this Democrat's populist message turn the SC State House 'right side up?'
One in a series of articles on the candidates running to be South Carolina's next governor.
COLUMBIA, SC — Phil Noble does not consider himself the Bernie Sanders of the 2018 S.C. governor's race.
But the 67-year-old Charleston businessman frequently echoes the populist message that the U.S. senator from Vermont championed in his unsuccessful 2016 bid for the Democratic nomination for president.
A party outsider, Noble says he is confident he will win the June 12 primary.
But the technology consultant has a tough hill to climb.
▪ He has raised very little money since he announced his candidacy last year.
▪ His previous political experience includes an unsuccessful run for the Democratic nomination for S.C. lieutenant governor and a failed bid to become S.C. Democratic Party chairman. A former opponent calls him "a gadfly."
▪ And his off-the-cuff remarks sometimes evoke winces.
Last week, for instance, Noble compared one of his Democratic opponents — state Rep. James Smith, D-Richland — to a Klansman removing his hood, drawing blistering criticism from Democrats and Republicans alike.
But Noble is unfazed.
At campaign stops and debates, he rails against lobbyists and says he will reject money from political action committees. He tells voters he is running on a message of "radical reform" and will turn the State House upside down, or "right side up."
Noble says he wants to double teachers' pay by reforming the S.C. tax code and removing state sales tax exemptions. He points to the April prison riot in Bishopville that left seven inmates dead and 22 others injured as proof that S.C. legislators do not care about African-Americans.
Noble's goal is to revamp a S.C. Democratic Party that has not put a Democrat in the Governor's Mansion since 1998.
"The Democratic Party in this state has run campaigns of Republican-lite," Noble said Thursday. "They have avoided big issues. They have avoided taking a hard stance. They've avoided talking about things radically different. ... The Democratic Party has deserved to get beat in the past because they haven't offered clear alternatives."
Noble and his lieutenant governor pick — Gloria Tinubu — don't talk about a political future where Noble doesn't win June 12.
"Look at the objective facts. We're tied for the lead," said Noble, referring to an April poll that showed him tied with Smith at 27 percent. "They are raising and spending more money than I am. My message is what's driving the campaign — a message about reform and the idea that we can do radically better. People want to send these guys a message, and I'm just the messenger."
But how ready are S.C. Democrats for Noble's message of radical change?
"The time has come," said Georgetown resident James Sanderson, who heads a chapter of the United Steelworkers Union. "Phil Noble is the ideal person to come to Columbia."
The 'outsider'
Noble has no experience in elected office. But he is not an outsider to S.C. politics.
In 1994, Noble ran for lieutenant governor, finishing last in a four-way Democratic primary. In 2011, he ran for state Democratic Party chairman, losing to Columbia attorney Dick Harpootlian.
Before he announced his bid for governor, Noble was the longtime president of the centrist S.C. New Democrats, a group founded by former Gov. Dick Riley. He also started several statewide nonprofit groups that pushed for education reform.
"He's somebody who certainly has followed politics and worked around politics but never (was) elected to office," said College of Charleston political scientist Gibbs Knotts. "He's very passionate about his beliefs. He wants a state that offers opportunities for all parts of the state. That could draw appeal."
But that appeal will be narrow, former party chairman Harpootlian said.
"Phil likes to be on a soapbox, and some of the things he says resonate," said the Columbia lawyer. "But he has been sort of a professional gadfly.
"He'll get votes. But he can't win."
Noble's running mate — Tinubu — also has not held elected office in South Carolina. She twice — in 2012 and 2014 — lost a bid for the U.S. House's 7th District seat.
Instead, much of Tinubu's political experience was in Georgia. There, she was elected to Atlanta City Council, and held seats in the Georgia Legislature and on the Georgia Board of Education.
Noble doesn't think his lack of experience in elected office compared to his opponents — Smith and his running mate state Rep. Mandy Powers Norrell, D-Lancaster, and state Sen. John Scott, D-Richland, Florence attorney Marguerite Willis' pick for lieutenant governor — will hurt him in the June 12 primary.
"I've spent 30 years fighting in this state for real change and big reform, and I've seen it ... have real impact in peoples' lives," he said Tuesday. "Just because I didn't win an election doesn't mean I don't care about these values. Real change always comes from the outside, never from the inside."
Noble's lack of experience in elected office is attractive to his supporters.
"He's someone that can come to the table with fresh ideas. He'll bring experts to the table if he doesn't know something," Sanderson said. "He's the only one that connects with the blue-collar, working people.
"It says a lot about him that he wants to be an inclusion governor," said Sanderson, who said he voted for President Donald Trump in 2016 but supported Democrats Jim Hodges and Vincent Sheheen in their gubernatorial bids. "Phil cares about people.
"That's why I'm on his bandwagon."
A no-apologies tour
The idea that Democrats can't change the status quo in a GOP-controlled Legislature is "a load of crap," Noble told reporters Tuesday after a TV debate in Charleston.
He regularly refers to the State House's culture as "plantation politics."
On former state Rep. Bakari Sellers' podcast Thursday, Noble compared Rep. Smith's position on gun control to "a Klansman taking his sheet off and saying, 'We'll, I've changed.'"
At Tuesday's debate, Noble said he will continue to "attack" Smith for his past positive ratings from the National Rifle Association, accusing Smith of being endorsed by the gun lobby. "You can't stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the NRA and be committed to protecting the lives of our children and our families."
Smith said Noble's assertions are absurd and inaccurate.
Smith never sought an endorsement from the NRA and it never endorsed him, said Alyssa Miller, the Afghanistan war veteran's campaign spokeswoman.
Smith did earn "high" grades from the NRA from 2006 to 2012, tied to legislation he sponsored that included gun-nuisance laws, and regulating privately owned firing ranges and hunting, Miller said.
But Smith's most recent NRA grade — in 2017 — was 43 percent, Miller said.
"Look at James' record," Miller said. "He's advocated for common-sense gun safety. ... He's the only candidate to get the endorsement of (the national gun-control group) Moms Demand Action. You think Moms Demand Action would give an endorsement to anyone endorsed by the NRA?"
Noble told The Post and Courier of Charleston Thursday that his "Klansman" remark on Sellers' podcast didn't "cross any of my lines."
But Friday, he told The State that, in hindsight, "one can always perhaps use a different set of words and phrases."
"You never want to offend people," he said. "But the point I was trying to make is ... now that he's running for governor, he's all of the sudden moderating his views. That's what voters hate."
Noble's no-holds-barred remarks are part of who he is, his campaign says. He's not a politician and doesn't abide by "politically correct" protocol.
"It's hard to know what helps or hurts him," said political scientist Knotts. For example, "the 'plantation' (phrase) is not one that you hear a lot of statewide candidates tackling in those terms. It's a risky move."
But it's a message Noble is sticking with, one he plans to carry into the general election if he wins June 12.
"We are not about respecting the protocol of how things have been going," Noble said. "We're about changing them.
"If that upsets people, we'll upset them."
Phil Noble
The business consultant running for the Democratic nomination for governor
Lives in: Charleston
Age: 67
Family: Married to Nancy Madden; two children
Job: Runs Phil Noble and Associates
Education: Birmingham-Southern College in Alabama
Money raised: $184,551.89
This story was originally published May 21, 2018 at 7:34 AM with the headline "Will this Democrat's populist message turn the SC State House 'right side up?'."