South-Carolina
Andy Beshear introduces himself to South Carolina as the normal Democrat
Beshear, who will lead the Democratic Governors Association into next year’s midterm elections, was introduced at most stops as the “most popular Democratic governor in America.”
He had not been able to stop his party’s decline down the ballot. Democrats lost their 70-year grip on the state attorney general’s office when he left it to run for governor; he also benefited from the state’s off-year elections, which meant he never shared a ballot with Trump.
But South Carolina’s Democrats were in worse shape than Kentucky’s. Last week, California Gov. Gavin Newsom toured the state with a robust defense of his state and its progressive pluralism. Beshear traveled a different route, quoting from the Bible (“the Parable of the Good Samaritan says everyone is our neighbor”) and saying he knew how to win when outnumbered.
“What we’re seeing out of Washington DC is incompetence, and it is cruelty,” Beshear said in Greenville. “It’s putting all of those things that people care about at risk. The tariff policy is going to hurt jobs. The big, ugly bill is going to devastate rural health care in your state and in mine.”
In each city, as Beshear delivered short stump speeches in a button-down blue shirt and khakis, he was joined by ghosts of the Democratic Party’s past. Former Gov. Richard Riley sat in at the Greenville house party; former Rep. Joe Cunningham attended the event in Charleston.
“The Democratic Party brand’s become toxic across the country,” Cunningham told Semafor. “Democrats have done a terrible job, not only speaking above people, but also talking down to folks who don’t know or don’t care to understand what those terms mean. I don’t know what they mean!”
In Columbia, former Gov. Jim Hodges was particularly enthusiastic about Beshear’s advice on speaking to voters in “normal” language.
“I’ve been saying that for a long time, and I’m glad to hear him say it,” said Hodges. “We talk down to people and we use words that people don’t use in their everyday lives.
“We need a grocery store, but we Dems have to call it a ‘food desert.’ What’s that term for moms we use — ‘birthing persons?’ It’s hard to connect with voters when you use language in a way that creates barriers,” Hodges added.
Beshear’s riff on “normal” language focused on three areas that aren’t controversial with Democrats: How to talk about prisoners, how to talk about drug addiction (“addiction,” not “substance use”), and how to talk about hunger (not “food insecurity”).
He agreed that Hodges’s example of “birthing people” — a gender-neutral term, reflecting that transgender men can also get pregnant — was needlessly alienating.
“For an individual that’s in that situation, I want to show them as much kindness as I can,” he said. “But for 99.9% of the American population, they can’t understand what it is that you’re saying.”
Beshear still criticized how the Trump administration had gone after the rights and health care access of transgender people. The administration’s shutdown of a trans suicide help line was “ridiculous,” he said, and its orders restricting gender-affirming care for minors went too far.
“I’m against surgeries on minors, okay?” he said. “But when you look at the other gender-affirming care, there’s a lot of research out there that suggests that parents ought to have the opportunity to consider: What is the best health care for their kids?”
NOTE: The above video is a livestream of WIS featuring current newscasts, Soda City Living and Gray Media’s Local News Live.
COLUMBIA, S.C. (WIS) – Former South Carolina Lt. Gov. André Bauer has been nominated for a position in foreign diplomacy.
The White House on Tuesday listed Bauer as a nominee to be the next U.S. Ambassador to Belize, a Central American country bordering Guatemala.
It’s unclear when a confirmation hearing will take place. WIS has reached out to the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee for more information.
Bauer was South Carolina’s lieutenant governor from 2003-2011, serving under then-Gov. Mark Sanford. Before that, he served terms in the South Carolina House of Representatives and the South Carolina Senate.
More recently, Bauer entered the race for U.S. Senate in July 2025, looking to unseat Sen. Lindsey Graham in the Republican primary. He ended his campaign the following month.
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CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCIV) — Six Republican candidates vying to become South Carolina’s next governor met in downtown Charleston for a wide-ranging debate that put abortion, infrastructure and the future of data centers at the center of the race.
The forum was held at the Sottile Theatre, where Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette, state Sen. Josh Kimbrell, U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace, U.S. Rep. Ralph Norman, Lowcountry businessman Rom Reddy and Attorney General Alan Wilson took the stage.
Questions included whether they would support a state hate crime law, how they would address concerns about growth and infrastructure, how to navigate collaboration, abortion and the future of data centers in the state.
One issue that drew near-unanimous opposition was state Senate Bill 1095, a proposed total abortion ban that passed out of committee earlier in the day. All of the candidates opposed the bill, but they differed on what they would do if it reached the governor’s desk.
READ MORE | South Carolina governor candidates tout infrastructure, growth at business forum
Norman said he would sign it.
“You know, this is an emotional issue, but I will tell you if this bill came to my desk as governor. If it passed the House and the Senate, I would sign it,” Norman said.
All of the other candidates on stage said they would veto the bill if it came across their desk as governor, with Reddy arguing the question should be decided by voters.
“The Supreme Court did not say the loudest voice in the ruling class prevails. It said it’s up to the people in the state, so let’s put it to a referendum,” Reddy said.
On infrastructure, candidates discussed reforming the South Carolina Department of Transportation and allowing private-sector involvement to help pay for improvements.
Wilson outlined ideas that included leasing interstate easements and expanding private express lanes.
“We privatized that grass between the interstates. We turn it into private express lanes that can be told we leased the easements on the sides of interstates to telecommunication companies and energy companies, and charge them for natural gas line and fiber optic fiber optic cables,” Wilson said.
Evette also pointed to public-private partnerships and the possibility of fast-pass lanes.
READ MORE | South Carolina governor candidates tout infrastructure, growth at business forum
“We want to make sure that we’re innovative public private partnerships coming in and creating fast pass lanes to allow people that are in a hurry to be able to utilize that,” Evette said.
The final question focused on data centers, with candidates agreeing corporations should “pay their way.”
“They should pay for their water. They should pay for their infrastructure, any roads around it, and we should look at what Governor Ron DeSantis has done in Florida with the large data centers that are coming to Florida. That should be the model in South Carolina and everywhere,” Mace said.
Kimbrell said the state should set limits to protect natural resources and guard against higher power costs for residents.
“Put parameters around data centers to ensure that the water consumption does not impact places like the ACE Basin,” Kimbrell said. “Ensuring that the Public Service Commission makes absolutely sure nobody’s power rate goes up and we try to get behind the meter energy grids in place so they can be self-sufficient.”
Two more debates are planned ahead of the primaries on June 9.
A bill that could make it a felony for doctors to perform an abortion is moving to the full South Carolina Senate with just a few weeks left in the legislative session.
The South Carolina Senate medical affairs committee continued a debate of Senate Bill 1095 on April 21 in Columbia. The bill, sponsored by State Sen. Richard Cash, R-Anderson, builds on a restrictive abortion bill that failed to progress in the fall.
The committee passed the measure in an 8-4 vote, moving it to the full Senate for consideration. Lawmakers have until May 14, the last day of the 2026 legislative session, to pass the bill for it to become law.
Senate Bill 1095, also called the “Unborn Child Protection Act,” bans performing an abortion or supplying abortion drugs. It makes it illegal for a woman to get an abortion, with the only exception being to save a pregnant woman’s life.
It also makes mifepristone and misoprostol Schedule IV controlled substances. Alprazolam (Xanax) and zolpidem (Ambien) are two other examples of Schedule IV substances.
Pro-Life Greenville, an anti-abortion organization based in Greenville, responded to the bill’s progress with “full endorsement” of the legislation.
“Unborn children, like all human beings, deserve to have their lives protected under law here in the Palmetto State,” Pro-Life Greenville stated. “Today’s vote by the SC Senate Medical Affairs Committee brings that urgent need one step closer to reality.”
Under the bill, a woman who has an abortion could face misdemeanor charges. The maximum sentence would be two years in jail with a $1,000 fine.
Those found guilty of performing an abortion or providing a pregnant woman with abortion-inducing drugs could face felony charges, a maximum sentence of 20 years in jail, and a possible $100,000 fine.
Planned Parenthood South Atlantic (PPSAT), a firm opponent of the bill, decried the Senate committee passage. PPSAT Director of Public Affairs Vicki Ringer said in a statement that the bill will cost people their lives, and it will make it more difficult for women to get reproductive and pregnancy healthcare.
“Abortion bans have and will continue to cost people their lives,” Ringer stated. “As this ban inches closer to the governor’s desk, it is becoming increasingly clear just how many of our lives anti-abortion lawmakers are willing to endanger in service to their agenda.”
Bella Carpentier covers the South Carolina legislature, state, and Greenville County politics. Contact her at bcarpentier@gannett.com
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