Elections
Grandmother of SC congressional candidate Moe Brown dies of COVID-19
Every political candidate is now campaigning through the prism of the ongoing global pandemic, their talking points and policy platforms colored by the crisis.
For Moe Brown, a former Gamecocks wide receiver now running as a Democrat to unseat Republican U.S. Rep. Ralph Norman in South Carolina’s 5th Congressional District, that reality has now come into even sharper focus.
In recent days, Brown has been using campaign e-mails urging voters to stay home to flatten the curve of the virus’ spread, criticizing Gov. Henry McMaster’s plan to reopen parts of the state’s economy as premature.
Then, on Thursday evening, he announced that his grandmother, Janie Lou Brown, had died earlier in the day at the age of 80 due to complications related to COVID-19.
The woman who had helped raise him in Anderson — who he affectionately called his “granny” — died alone in a hospital bed in Jacksonville, Fla. No one could see her, hearing only about her condition through overwhelmed doctors and nurses, Brown told The State.
She was originally given 24 hours to live when first hospitalized for the virus but held on for the next 16 days. On the 14th day, she’d tested negative for COVID-19 — “she beat it,” Moe Brown said in awe — but by then Janie Lou Brown had developed severe pneumonia and it was too late for her to recover.
When she is returned to Anderson for her burial early next week, 20 family members and friends will have to decide among themselves who gets to attend the memorial service, adhering to strict limits set by the funeral home in following social distancing protocol.
“People will want to show their respects but they can’t because of this virus,” Brown said Thursday evening. “That is a shame for my granny because people deserve to grieve for her. There is accountability along with that. People are hurting right now because we can’t get enough tests, we can’t get enough masks.”
Brown said he was frustrated and distraught from the beginning by the response to the coronavirus pandemic from Washington, D.C., accusing Republican elected officials, particularly President Donald Trump, of putting their egos ahead of collaborating on a solution to address the oncoming crisis.
But he said his grandmother’s death, and the circumstances surrounding it, has deepened his understanding of how deadly the virus really is, and said that it “absolutely” would inform the way he talks about the issue with voters going forward.
Brown said it will inform his vocal opposition to McMaster’s plans to start relaxing some social distancing orders before the virus has reached its anticipated peaked in the state.
“We still don’t know enough,” Brown argued, “not until until we get to the point where we have enough testing.”
The personal connection to the virus also could help the underdog candidate draw a contrast between himself and Norman.
While the incumbent Republican has the advantage of being able to tell voters he is working directly to secure federal resources for South Carolinians to meet the challenges of the pandemic, Norman also voted against the second, $100 billion bill Congress has passed so far in its sequence of four measures to address varying elements of the crisis.
“He was one of the 40 representatives who voted ‘no’ for the second relief package,” Brown said. “People are literally dying ... we can’t afford to be passive.”
In the meantime, Brown said he was one of the 20 people who will be able to attend his grandmother’s memorial service in Anderson next week.
“I had to be there,” he said.
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