The State endorsement: Our choices for Congress in SC

Early South Carolina voting begins Tuesday ahead of the June 11 primary election, so The State Editorial Board is launching a series of endorsements today by offering our recommendations in congressional district 2, which includes Lexington County and part of Richland County, and district 6, which includes the rest of Richland County.

In District 2, Hamp Redmond, a Swansea contractor, is challenging U.S. Rep. Joe Wilson, R-Springdale, in the Republican primary. Columbia entrepreneur David Robinson II and West Columbia insurance agent Daniel Shrief are dueling in the Democratic primary. The winners will square off in a Nov. 5 general election.

Wilson, a 31-year Army veteran, is our choice in the GOP primary. He was elected to Congress in a 2001 special election and voters have sent him back to Washington, D.C., for 11 two-year terms since then. He said his priorities in a new term would be “to create jobs, reduce inflation and help democracies defeat dictators,” all noble goals, and he told us the events of Jan. 6, 2021, “showed irresponsible conduct without adequate Capitol security.” He is endorsed by former President Donald Trump.

Redmond said his focus would be border security and China’s “multifaceted threat to the U.S.” But Redmond did not criticize the criminal acts of Jan. 6 in an interview, even though by the three-year anniversary of that dark day in U.S. history, the Department of Justice had tallied 213 felony pleas and 505 misdemeanor pleas among more than 1,265 people facing charges from crimes committed at the Capitol. Unlike Wilson’s comment about “irresponsible conduct,” Redmond said Jan. 6 “highlighted Americans’ frustration with a government prioritizing special interests over citizens” and “was a reminder of the frustrations many Americans feel towards their government.” It bears repeating that there is no evidence of widespread fraud in the 2020 election, as a Trump administration voting integrity commissioner, election officials in all 50 states and Trump’s own attorney general have acknowledged, and that more than 60 legal challenges to the election were rejected in court. That election was legitimate.

The State endorses Wilson, and given his experience and dominance in prior races, he should easily defeat the winner in the Democratic primary. The State endorses Robinson in that race. Robinson, a retired Army veteran, has searched unsuccessfully for his 24-year-old son, a geologist who went missing in Arizona, since 2021. He has been forged by that and forced to think about life differently. He sees the events of Jan. 6 as “an attack on our country and way of life,” and showed a better grasp than Shrief of issues, an appreciation for complexity and an ability to consider subjects from many angles instead of only a partisan view. Those are all strengths The State Editorial Board values along with a candidate’s achievements, background, character, demeanor and experience.

In District 6, U.S. Rep. Jim Clyburn, D-Santee, did not draw a challenger in the Democratic primary. On Nov. 5, he will automatically face the winner of the Republican primary election between lawyer and former Walterboro City Council member Duke Buckner and Justin Scott, who runs a welding and fabrication shop in Walterboro. The State endorses Buckner in the GOP primary. His view of abortion nods to its difficulty and divisiveness, and demonstrates how he might evaluate complex issues. He said abortion should be left up to individual states but also that “strong families and population growth are essential to our long-term national security,” so he proposes the government provide free prenatal care for all female U.S. citizens, regardless of income. The question, of course, is what about child care, which is so costly for so many?

Buckner has no chance of unseating Clyburn, who was elected in 1992 and has been reelected 15 times since then. Such longevity would have been hard to imagine when Clyburn was elected president of Sumter’s NAACP Youth Council at the age of 12. He now says, “We all have roles to play in our nation’s pursuit of perfection.”

Spot on. Please vote.

This story was originally published May 25, 2024 at 5:00 AM.