Hurricane Helene showed why we should all vote with a sense of urgency this fall | Opinion

This election, voters in the Palmetto State don’t have to look far for reminders of all the ways that government matters: Hundreds of thousands of South Carolinians have had no power for days after Hurricane Helene carved a path of death, damage and destruction through the South.

The bad news is that rebuilding and reducing future catastrophes will take time and strategic leadership. The good news is that you get to choose who is up to the challenge of charting that path.

South Carolinians are less than three weeks away from starting to cast ballots in races from Congress to County Council, from Statehouse to school board to sheriff. Whether you’re the kind of person who follows every fundraising filing or whose followers get blocked for posting about politics, we can all agree on this: It’s hard to cut through the candidates’ competing claims at this late stage.

That’s where McClatchy’s South Carolina Editorial Board comes in. Last month, we emailed surveys to dozens of candidates vying for 28 seats, and we will soon start publishing their answers so that you can judge the candidates for yourselves, quickly, conveniently, factually.

In all, we will publish 60 candidate Q&As after seeking 68. That’s a participation rate of 88% — and we appreciate every candidate who took the time to submit their detailed answers and then respond to our rigorous editing process to ensure claims, facts and figures were corroborated.

We gave all the candidates 10 days to reply to a half dozen questions with no more than 250 words per answer, then we gave extensions to everyone who missed the deadline until we could delay no longer. It’s unfortunate that eight supposed public servants brushed off the public.

Richland 2 school board member Monica Elkins declined to answer our questions, which we told her would be printed in their entirety. Four candidates or their aides — Rep. William Timmons, Rep. Russell Fry, Richland 1 school board member Tamika Myers and Lexington 1 school board member Mike Anderson — acknowledged our request but didn’t reply to it. Three others — Beaufort County Council member Gerald Dawson, Richland 2 school board member Lashonda McFadden and Richland 2 school board candidate James Mobley — didn’t respond at all.

Sadly, seven of these eight are incumbents already elected to engage the public, not to ignore it.

But enough about them.

This election, as always, is about you, the voter.

As McClatchy’s South Carolina opinion editor, I take seriously the responsibility to share the candidates’ views with you, to help with your research and to offer our recommendations.

In total, we will publish endorsements in all seven congressional elections; in four of the more competitive Statehouse races — House of Representatives District 75 and Senate Districts 10, 26 and 35; and for Beaufort County Council, Richland County sheriff and the four largest school districts in Lexington and Richland counties: Richland 1, Richland 2, Lexington 1 and Lexington-Richland 5. Our Q&As will go online first the week of Oct. 6, and the endorsements will run in print and online the week of Oct. 20 as early voting begins ahead of the Nov. 5 election.

I often get asked: Why do you do this? The answer is that vetting candidates for public office is a vital part of journalism. Voters are busy, politics is messy and journalists have access. It would be a dereliction of duty not to share what we learn from and about these candidates with you.

This election, our endorsements were made by me, by letters editor and longtime South Carolina journalist Allison Askins, and by Republican political strategist and analyst Matt Wylie, who writes a regular column for McClatchy, in consultation with Brian Tolley, president and editor of The State, The Island Packet and The Beaufort Gazette, and The Sun News in South Carolina.

To be clear, we’re not here to pick winners, campaign for candidates or back one political party, and we don’t expect you to follow our recommendations blindly. We encourage you to seek out other interviews, endorsements and research — other opinions — as you choose our leaders.

As we did in the primary election, we’ll base endorsements on our interviews, fact-checking and research — and on each person’s achievements, background, character, demeanor and experience. We’ll consider factors like how a candidates’ values represent their voting constituencies — Donald Trump, for example, won six of the state’s seven congressional districts in the 2024 Republican presidential primary, won South Carolina by nearly 12 percentage points in 2020 and won the state by 14 percentage points in 2016. And we’ll consider whether minority voices might be underrepresented or muted — South Carolina, for example, has fewer women in state and federal public office than almost any other state.

Your subscriptions and support make this massive undertaking possible, so thank you for reading our work. I hope you value our transparency, and that the Q&As and endorsements help you with such a sacred aspect of American life: electing the people who represent us.

This story was originally published October 3, 2024 at 6:00 AM.

Matthew T. Hall

Opinion Contributor,

The State

Matthew T. Hall is a former journalist for The State