Vice President Biden coming to Fort Mill

The first high-profile salvo in the race for South Carolina’s 5th District Congressional seat is expected to come Sept. 12 in Fort Mill, where Democratic Vice-President Joe Biden is set to speak for his former aide Fran Person, who is running against incumbent Republican Mick Mulvaney.

However, the public won’t have a chance to see or hear the candidate without shelling out $250 - the cost per person online to attend the fundraiser. Person, a former University of South Carolina football player who lives in Tega Cay, was a longtime aide for Biden who has outraised Mulvaney so far in the race.

Jim Thompson, chairman of the York County Democratic Party, said that Biden’s visit will get voters “excited and enthused,” and that he believes both the congressional race and presidential race are winnable by Democrats despite Republicans carrying both easily for years.

“This is an important election, and up and down the ticket we believe we can carry South Carolina,” Thompson said.

Although the Sept. 12 event is not a public appearance, Thompson said he expects a public Biden event in York County before the November election.

Joel Hamilton, York County Republican Party chairman, said that York County’s growing population to more than a quarter million people and its economic power are becoming more and more important in political races.

“I love to see the attention national political figures are paying to York County, Hamilton said.

However, Hamilton said, York County remains firmly Republican and Biden’s visit will remind conservatives about the importance of keeping Mulvaney in Congress and Republicans up and down the ticket. Mulvaney, who unseated three-decade incumbent Democrat John Spratt of York in 2010 and won re-election handily in 2012 and 2014, has painted Person as a Washington insider who came to South Carolina just to tun for office.

“The best thing Fran Person can do for Mick Mulvaney is bring Joe Biden to town,” Hamilton said.

Polls also suggest that while the 5th District race is becoming closer because of the money pouring in for Person in a district that has become more conservative over the past two decades, Democrats say that the presidential race where Republican Donald Trump has lost ground in South Carolina that has voted Republican in recent elections is now in play statewide.

Republican maintain that the district and the presidency remain squarely in their column.

The event will be at the White Homestead on S.C. 160 - the same place that Bill Clinton stayed more than two decades ago that belongs to the Springs Close first family of Fort Mill. Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and Crandall Bowles of the Springs family were college classmates and her husband, Erskine Bowles, was Bill Clinton’s chief of staff.

In September, at a fundraiser at the Bowles’ Charlotte home, Clinton raised more than $400,000 for her campaign.

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