Shrimp, grits and gun control: SC reps to cook up ‘prickly’ convos in PBS show
Charleston Rep. JA Moore (D) flipped shrimp over an open flame as his colleague, Hilton Head Rep. Jeff Bradley (R) sliced peppers and onions for garnish. On the menu Monday evening was shrimp, grits, and the lack of affordable housing for hospitality workers in Hilton Head.
“I don’t believe the government should be paying for affordable housing,” Bradley, a 68-year old white conservative from Alabama, said to the audience.
“We need to have a better public transportation system,” responded Moore, 40. “That don’t fix housing costs in Hilton Head or in downtown Charleston, but what we want to do for our employees is make it easier for them to get to and from work.”
The conversation was cooked up for an audience of power players in South Carolina’s restaurant and lodging industry at their annual conference, held this year at Sonesta Resort Hilton Head.
Moore and Bradley are not just SC legislators, but also stars of a new cooking show available on PBS where they serve up southern classics with a side of politics. The show, created by SCETV, tackles “prickly” topics such as gun control and abortion.
In the first episode, now streaming on PBS.org, Bradley and Moore dove into gun control over a meal of seafood, red rice, and peach cobbler.
The topic is personal for Moore, whose half-sister Myra Thompson was killed in the 2015 Charleston church shooting.
That event was the “catalyst” for Moore’s political pursuits after 15 years in the restaurant business. After getting elected to the represent South Carolina 15th district — the first Democrat to do so — Moore got the idea for the show, and paired up with Bradley, an amateur home cook whose district includes Hilton Head Island and part of Jasper County.
Moore and Bradley acknowledge they’re an “unlikely pair.” They often differ on political views, but bonded over their shared love of food and respect for one another.
Gun control debate simmers
On gun control, Bradley recognizes that many South Carolinians fear having their “guns taken away,” and asked whether school shootings could be prevented via a mental health approach.
The U.S. gun homicide rate is much higher than that of other developed countries, according to the Pew Research Center.
“We have a very complicated relationship with guns in this country,” Bradley said in the PBS episode. “There’s an awful lot of people who believe in the second amendment, and they’re going to fight any sort of gun confiscation thing.”
He suggested that the issue could be addressed through better policies on mental health, social media, and education.
Moore said that mental health is just “a part of it.” “People that have committed mass shootings aren’t necessarily just ‘fatherless’ people. They’re people without hope.”
Some experts argue that focusing on mental health diverts attention from the problem of easy access to firearms, and that gun violence is not causally linked to mental health. In an online blog for the Association of American Medical Colleges, psychiatry professors John Rozel and Jeffrey Swanson argue stronger legislation is needed to “prevent access to firearms among people most at risk for perpetrating violence at their riskiest times.”
Moore has long been an advocate in stricter gun control legislation in South Carolina, with a focus on “keeping guns out of the wrong hands,” as he wrote in a 2022 Post and Courier column.
He has voiced support for universal background checks and raising the minimum age for gun purchases to 21.
“We need to take a hard look at assault weapons — weapons meant for war — and decide if we are comfortable having them in civilian hands,” wrote Moore in the column.
In the PBS episode, Bradley said shooters could still do a lot of damage without assault weapons.
“If you have three or four handguns and you walk into a school, you don’t need an assault rifle,” he said.
The National Rifle Association, a historically powerful gun lobby in the United States, argues that gun control laws don’t prevent violent crime, and that people with the intent to commit violent crime will find ways to obtain a weapon illegally.
Bipartisanism through food
At the Sonesta Resort keynote, Bradley and Moore fielded questions on affordable housing, education, and THC regulations.
Bradley chairs the South Carolina House Standing Committee on Regulations, Administrative Procedures, Artificial Intelligence & Cybersecurity, where Moore serves as a member. Both are proponents of preparing South Carolina for a future that involves AI.
They hope their PBS show will help bridge political divides and facilitate conversations about making SC a better state.
The first episode of SCETV’s “Food for Thought”, shot in Charleston, is available for free online at PBS.org.
The second episode, shot during the RBC Heritage golf tournament on Hilton Head, will tackle abortion. The pair hopes to travel to Darlington, SC to see cars race at the Darlington Raceway and Clemson, SC to attend a Clemson tailgate.
Moore is also working on a “political cookbook” telling stories about his interactions with politicians, including an anecdote about Kamala Harris and six bushels of collard greens. The book is expected to launch at Martha’s Vineyard Book Festival August 2026.
Moore sees his political career as not too different from the restaurant business — both are “all about service,” he said.
“The people I served in my experience, weren’t all Democrats,” Moore said. “They were everybody.”
This story was originally published September 9, 2025 at 12:51 PM with the headline "Shrimp, grits and gun control: SC reps to cook up ‘prickly’ convos in PBS show."
