SC is now a battleground state, and it’s the Democrats who have all of the momentum

I always joke when I travel to other cities that my city is “a [Democratic] blueberry in a bowl of [Republican] tomato soup.”

But now that four individual polls over the past two weeks have reported narrow leads for both President Donald Trump and Sen. Lindsey Graham in their respective races, this tomato soup has now decisively turned into a plum that’s ripe on the tree and ready for picking.

South Carolina, we have become a battleground state.

As South Carolina and our country battle two pandemics at once — COVID-19 and a slew of racial injustices — more and more people are moving away from being on the fence.

They’re picking a side.

And that side increasingly represents the science-backing, morally just and equitable stance of Southerners who are tired of leadership that doesn’t represent or respect them.

Democratic momentum

Look back just six months ago to February when Graham easily led Jaime Harrison, his Democratic Party challenger, by more than 10 points. Now, according to the Quinnipiac Poll released on Aug. 6, Graham and Harrison are tied.

South Carolina was the first state to secede from the union.

It was the state in which the Confederate battle flag hung on the statehouse grounds until as late as 2015.

It was the state that — until last year — had only one Democratic representative in Washington for years and years.

Now the tide is turning, and it’s turning blue.

You can call me an optimist on this, but we can’t ignore the numbers.

As a proud believer, I often use W.E. Deming’s famous quote that “in God we trust — all others must bring data.” The data certainly continues to speak when it comes to South Carolina, and we’re expecting November to change the trajectory of the state’s politics in offices up and down the ballot.

This is the year when everything that could happen has happened and will happen.

While pundits and campaign leaders on both sides of the aisle write off South Carolina as a red state, frustrated teachers, parents, social justice advocates, health care workers and everyone else in between are marching to their ballot boxes and mailboxes to vote for new leadership.

South Carolina is ripe and ready for change.

As we continue to brace ourselves during this hurricane season, a perfect political storm has now formed.

It is pitting heated residents — burning with frustration with Republicans who care more about their political careers than helping families get through the health and economic challenges of a pandemic — against the cold, apathetic and stony embrace of leadership that offers them no solutions and no support.

For example, while South Carolinians were doing their best to keep their families healthy and their bills paid during COVID-19, Sen. Graham told us that Congress would only reauthorize unemployment benefits over his “dead body.”

Hard-working individuals who have no desire to receive unemployment benefits — but are finding themselves in desperate need of them — are frustrated by such a lack of leadership on both health and economic measures.

Simply put, if you were to ask Democrats and Republicans to talk about the issues that matter most to them, the majority of those issues would be the same. Regardless of our political affiliation, how can we ignore the challenges that all of us face with issues ranging from health and wages to sending children back to schools and putting food on our tables?

Change is coming

Take a good look, short-timers.

The more you blatantly disregard the basic and fundamental needs of the voters of our great state, the faster you accelerate into an upset in November.

Democrats in South Carolina are primed to be winners this election cycle up and down the ballot.

From Jaime Harrison’s statewide historic campaign to U.S. Rep. Joe Cunningham’s re-election bid and Adair Ford Boroughs’ competitive, well-funded fight against U.S. Rep. Joe Wilson, South Carolina Democrats are demonstrating that we are a force to be reckoned with.

This November let’s let the world see just how ripe of a plum the Palmetto State really is.

Let’s elect Joe Biden as president.

Let’s elect Jaime Harrison as a U.S. senator and show that we meant it when we said, “Lindsey must go.”

And let’s show the rest of the country how invested we are in preserving American values and uprooting toxic systems of belief to create a more perfect union in these United States.

South Carolina is a battleground state, and we’re here to prove it.

Steve Benjamin is the mayor of Columbia.

This story was originally published August 11, 2020 at 2:18 PM.