Your SC politics briefing
Welcome to your weekly South Carolina politics briefing, a newsletter curated by The State’s politics and government team.
The House was on furlough this week, and the Senate was business as usual.
On the agenda? A bill aimed at giving parents more school choice options, which was placed on the priority calendar.
The bill would allow parents to take public school dollars allocated for their child and put it into an educational scholarship account that could then be used to cover private or other public educational expenses. It aims to help low-income and special needs students who can’t afford to attend better schools.
The debate this week was dominated by Sen. Mike Fanning, a former history teacher who a couple of years ago held the floor for weeks to filibuster a giant education package.
Fanning this week argued that teachers, sorely needed across the state, have not voiced support for the initiative. He also said the education scholarship account would likely not cover the full cost of private school tuition, meaning low-income students likely wouldn’t benefit from the program.
The debate will continue next week.
Paid family leave bill drops to 6 weeks
A bill that would have originally given state employees 12 weeks of paid family leave after giving birth, adopting or taking in a foster child was dramatically slashed during a Senate Finance hearing Tuesday.
The new proposal, which passed the subcommittee unanimously, offers only six weeks of paid leave for parents who gave birth and two weeks to parents who adopt or welcome a foster child.
The bill would not apply to teachers, who are employees of local school districts, according to the Department of Education.
Senators voted to cut the time off provided in the bill to overcome any dissent that may come up in the Senate, Sen. Tom Davis said.
“I think there was a lot of pragmatic assessment of what the opposition would be if we proceeded with 12 weeks, and the bill’s authors in both in the House and the Senate are satisfied that this particular bill was something that could get passed this year,” Davis said.
Trans athlete ban advances despite controversy
The Senate Education Committee voted to send a bill banning transgender women and girls from participating in middle school, high school and collegiate sports to the floor.
It’s the first time the ban has made it to the floor in either chamber.
The vote came after a contentious debate over whether the bill’s sponsor, Sen. Richard Cash, did his due diligence on the bill. Democrats and Republicans alike criticized Cash for not inviting representatives from colleges and private schools, which would be affected by the bill, to testify.
Ahead of the vote, Republican Education Chairman Greg Hembree warned the bill was not ready to be sent to the floor.
“When you’ve got problems like this going to the floor with two weeks left, you’re writing your own obituary,” Hembree said.
Private feud between Arrington and Mulvaney goes public
Things got ugly in one of South Carolina’s most competitive congressional primaries this week.
We have the texts to prove it.
The State’s Caitlin Byrd obtained screenshots of a contentious back-and-forth that took place over text this week between Trump-backed Republican congressional candidate Katie Arrington and Trump’s former acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney.
Arrington twice called Mulvaney a “piece of s---” after he told NBC News that she was “not the best candidate by any stretch of the imagination.” Mulvaney replied to Arrington by calling her “unfit for office.”
Mulvaney is backing incumbent US Rep. Nancy Mace in the GOP primary for South Carolina’s 1st District, while Trump has thrown his support behind Arrington.
When the private messages went public, the story made national waves. In a tweet hours after the story broke, Mulvaney doubled down on his comments about Arrington, which were later retweeted by Stephanie Grisham, Trump’s former White House press secretary.
And in another twist, another person from the Trump White House weighed in on the text exchange. Peter Navarro, who served as Trump’s trade adviser, sided with Arrington in the spat and tweeted out some thoughts of his own about Mulvaney.
The whole thing shows just how heated this congressional primary race is becoming.
Corrections give a thumbs up for executions
Executions by a state-approved firing squad are now able to be carried out in South Carolina after the state’s prisons agency informed the attorney general it had made the updates to perform the specific method of executions.
Two inmates were scheduled for execution last year after the Legislature passed a bill making the electric chair the default method of execution and creating a firing squad. The executions were stayed after the South Carolina Supreme Court ruled the inmates must be given a choice between those two methods, and only the electric chair was available.
The Department of Corrections’ announcement is expected to restart the execution process.
Two inmates, however, have asked the state Supreme Court to stay their executions pending a hearing in state court over whether execution by the electric chair or firing squad are constitutional.
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Buzz Bites
▪ South Carolina’s junior senator Tim Scott told reporters that he won’t make his decision to vote for Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson based on the color of her skin. The hearings started this week.
▪ Ahead of the confirmation hearing for Ketanji Brown Jackson, Sen. Lindsey Graham said he was still upset President Joe Biden didn’t nominate South Carolina Judge Michelle Childs to the Supreme Court.
▪ Republican US Rep. Nancy Mace received the endorsement of the Republican Jewish Coalition in her bid to keep her 1st District seat, against mainly Trump-backed candidate Katie Arrington.
▪ We asked ethics experts and political watchers to weigh in after Katie Arrington accused Rep. Nancy Mace of using taxpayer dollars to send a campaign-style mailer about border security.
▪ If the Legislature passes a bill to suspend the gas tax amid rising gas prices, Gov. Henry McMaster said he would consider the move.
▪ At least three candidates will be running this year to replace an outgoing member of Lexington County’s SC House delegation, including two members of the local school board.
▪ State Rep. Bobby Cox will try to push a bill through the last few months of the legislative session to allow for hunting on Sundays.
▪ Two brothers will serve together in the SC House, at least for the next few months after Rep. Adam Morgan’s brother, Alan, won his special election race for an open House seat.
▪ Joe Cunningham, who is running to unseat Gov. Henry McMaster, is proposing raising starting salaries for new K-12 teachers by nearly 40% over the next decade, the Associated Press reported.
▪ It’s tax season: Here are seven tips to keep in mind.
▪ House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn filed to seek a 16th term representing South Carolina’s 6th District, saying he’s headed into his next campaign as long as his health and family support stay strong, the Associated Press reported.
▪ Dominion Energy is seeking a rate increase in South Carolina.
▪ State Rep. Jerry Govan, D-Orangeburg, announced last week that he plans to run on the Democratic ticket for superintendent of education. Govan will not run for his House seat, one of at least a dozen House members who will not seek reelection in 2022.
Mark Your Calendar
March 28
Education Oversight Committee meets at 1 p.m.
March 29
House returns from furlough week at noon. Senate comes in at 2 p.m.
March 30
Candidate filing ends in South Carolina
Senate Medical Affairs will discuss two abortion bills at 9:30 a.m.
March 31
A 3-M subcommittee will take up the Senate’s medical marijuana bill at 9 a.m.
April 7
Crossover deadline
June 14
Statewide primaries
*To keep up with the legislative schedule, visit scstatehouse.gov/index.php and click the meeting tab under each chamber.*
Before we adjourn
Goodbyes are hard.
Today is my last day as a reporter for The State.
It has been an absolute pleasure to bring you all the news you need from the State House, and it has been an absolute thrill to get a front row seat to all the crazy things that happen in South Carolina politics.
Keep up with my colleagues Maayan Schechter, Zak Koeske, Caitlin Byrd, John Monk and Joe Bustos for the latest at the State House. And please, if you don’t already, subscribe to The State (and get one for your brother/sister/mother/father while you’re at it).
Thank you for everything and, as always, thank you for reading.
- Emily
Who pulled together this week’s newsletter?
This week it was Emily Bohatch, reporter on the The State’s politics and state government team. You can keep up with her on Twitter and send her tips at @emilybohatch or by email ebohatch@thestate.com.
Make sure to sign up for our weekly politics newsletter that will come straight to your inbox every Friday morning. Tell your friends to do the same. For even more South Carolina-focused political news, you can chat with us on Facebook at the Buzz on South Carolina Politics, email us tips at thebuzz [at] thestate [dot] com and follow our stories at scpolitics.com.
This story was originally published March 25, 2022 at 8:31 AM.
