Tag: south carolina

Democrats Vote to Make South Carolina the First 2028 Primary State – And Here’s Who Will Benefit

Democrats are set to make South Carolina its first 2028 primary state.

The Democrat National Committee panel on Friday voted to make South Carolina – a state with a large black voting bloc, their first presidential primary state.

“So they will emerge as the first contest in a body of work that will have a plethora of good contests for these candidates to really vie for,” the panel said.

This is a major shift away from Iowa and Nevada – states with fewer black voters.

Recall that Joe Biden pushed for the Democrats to move its first voting state to South Carolina because that is where he made his ‘come back’ in 2020.

Joe Biden requested the change going into the 2024 election after he took a punch to the gut in Iowa and came in 5th place in the New Hampshire 2020 primaries.

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South Carolina Gov. Appoints Darline Graham Nordone to Finish Lindsey Graham’s Term

Gov. Henry McMaster (R-SC) picked Sen. Lindsey Graham’s (R-SC) sister, Darline Graham Nordone, to serve as interim senator, and complete the remainder of her brother’s term.

During a press conference on Monday, McMaster expressed that it was his duty and “honor to name someone to serve in the place” of Graham, whose term runs through the end of the 119th Congress on January 3, 2027. McMaster’s selection of Graham Nordone to take her brother’s seat in the Senate comes after Graham’s office announced on Sunday that he had died at the age of 71 after “a brief and sudden illness.”

“Today, under the law, it’s my duty to and honor to name someone to serve in the place of this irresistible man, this irreplaceable man, this extraordinary man for the remainder of his term,” McMaster said. “Lindsey took care of his little sister in years long departed. It’s my honor to ask his little sister, Darline Graham to finish his work for him now.”

McMaster continued to talk about how prior to having a phone conservation with Graham Nordone regarding her serving out the remainder of her brother’s term, he “had wondered” what she would say and was humbled by her “quickness to see the duty” for her to serve.

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Penis Measurements Cannot Justify a Sex Offender’s Indefinite Detention, South Carolina’s Top Court Says

South Carolina is one of 20 states that authorize indefinite civil commitment of sex offenders after they have completed their prison sentences. Under state law, such continued detention is allowed only when a jury concludes beyond a reasonable doubt that a respondent qualifies as a “sexually violent predator” (SVP), meaning he “suffers from a mental abnormality or personality disorder that makes [him] likely to engage in acts of sexual violence if not confined in a secure facility for long-term control, care, and treatment.”

Although the South Carolina Office of Mental Health (OMH) concluded that Andy Hyman was not an SVP, a jury disagreed, swayed by a second opinion based largely on penile plethysmography (PPG), a scientifically dubious technique that aims to measure sexual response to images, audio narratives, or textual descriptions by gauging tiny changes in the circumference of the subject’s penis. That test, the South Carolina Supreme Court unanimously ruled last month in response to Hyman’s appeal, is “generally inadmissible in judicial proceedings” because it suffers from a “glaring lack of standardization,” which casts doubt on its validity as a predictor of recidivism.

With that decision, the South Carolina Supreme Court joins a long list of state and federal courts that have deemed PPG results unreliable and inadmissible. The technique is so controversial that the OMH, which is charged with conducting pre-commitment evaluations under South Carolina’s SVP law, eschews PPG as a matter of policy. But the state is allowed to solicit a second evaluation if it does not like the OMH’s opinion, which is what happened in Hyman’s case.

Hyman, who pleaded guilty to criminal sexual conduct with a minor in 1997, served “a short term in prison” and “completed several years of supervised release in 2003,” the South Carolina Supreme Court noted. Thirteen years later, Hyman pleaded guilty to the same crime, this time in the third degree, which resulted in a 10-year prison sentence. Before he completed that sentence, the state sought to continue detaining him as an SVP.

Marie Gehle, the OMH’s chief psychologist, conducted “a series of standardized tests” and diagnosed Hyman with “pedophilic disorder.” But she concluded that he did not fit the statutory criteria for civil commitment because he was not especially likely to reoffend. Unsatisfied with that assessment, the state asked Emily Gottfried, director of the Sexual Behavior Clinic and Lab at the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC), for a second opinion.

Gottfried agreed that standardized tests placed Hyman “squarely within the average rate of recidivism” for sex offenders. But unlike Gehle, she also conducted a PPG test, which seemed to play an important role in her conclusion that Hyman posed “a heightened risk of reoffending.”

During the trial, Gottfried described PPG as “an objective physiological measure of male sexual arousal,” “the gold standard” for assessing that response, and a “strong predictor or risk factor for future sexual offending.” The PPG results, the state’s lawyer told the jury, “clearly indicate[d]” that Hyman had a “current sexual interest in children.” That was enough, “in and of itself,” to justify his civil commitment, the state argued.

The jury deliberated for just 22 minutes before agreeing with Gottfried. It rejected the contrary assessment offered by Gehle, who testified that most of the tests Gottfried had used were not designed to measure the likelihood of recidivism. In particular, Gehle said, PPG is not reliable, since retests produce inconsistent results, or valid as a predictor of future offending, which she said is why the OMH does not use it for pre-commitment evaluations.

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South Carolina Passes “GRADE FLOOR” Ban For K-12 Public Schools

In a move to protect educational excellence, consistency and standards, the State of Carolina has become the first state in the U.S. to ban “grade floor” policies in K-12 public schools.

For those who are not familiar with the “grade floor” policy, it is a practice that prevents teachers from giving a student a grade below the actual percentage the student earned.

The most common “floor” school systems adopt is the 50% minimum. Basically, a student need not do any work to earn at least a 50%. It’s part of what is called “equity grading” which should be correctly called “enabling grading” because it enables students to appoint themselves as “victims” in order to skate by without achieving educational proficiency in school. It teaches students that they can’t and don’t have to achieve, especially when they face difficult content or situations. We have published several articles on this crippling policy:

Currently, we can confirm only six districts in Maryland that have used or do use the 50% floor in grading, Anne Arundel, Calvert, Charles, Montgomery, Prince Georges and Talbot. Talbot recently removed it from their policies.

Currently, it is estimated that 18 out of South Carolina’s 22 School Districts use the 50% floor in student grading even though research concludes that the practice does not improve student achievement.

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RINO TREACHERY STRIKES AGAIN IN SOUTH CAROLINA: Senate KILLS Motion to Expedite Trump-Backed Redistricting – 6 Republicans Join Democrats to Jeopardize 7-0 GOP Congressional Map and Protect Jim Clyburn’s Gerrymandered Seat

The South Carolina Senate just killed a critical motion to expedite the Trump-backed congressional redistricting effort, putting the entire push for a bold 7-0 Republican map in serious jeopardy as Democrats and their weak-kneed GOP enablers drag their feet past the start of early voting on Tuesday, May 26.

State Rep. Adam Morgan blasted the vote and sounded the alarm:

“South Carolina Senate KILLS motion to expedite Redistricting! This puts the entire effort in serious jeopardy. 6 Republicans voted with Dems to kill it… The motion would [have] suspended Rule 15b to allow immediate cloture. Without this they can drag the debate out past the start of early voting (Tues, 5/26). This 25-15 vote failed to meet the required 2/3 threshold. Luke Rankin (R-Horry) did not vote.”

The six Republican traitors who voted with the Democrats to block the motion and protect the status quo are:

  • Rex Rice (Pickens)
  • Shane Massey (Edgefield)
  • Sean Bennett (Dorchester)
  • Chip Campsen (Charleston)
  • Tom Davis (Beaufort)
  • Greg Hembree (Horry)

This is the same crew of weaklings (plus one new addition) who previously blocked efforts to extend the session, as The Gateway Pundit reported earlier this month when five of them handed Democrats a temporary win and defied massive pressure from President Donald Trump himself.

As The Gateway Pundit previously reported, the South Carolina House just rammed through a bold new 7-0 Republican congressional map – a direct strike at far-left Rep. Jim Clyburn’s unconstitutional, race-based 6th District stronghold. Governor Henry McMaster even called an emergency special session to force the issue and secure a clean Republican sweep of all seven U.S. House seats in the Palmetto State.

But these Senate RINOs just can’t help themselves. They’d rather side with Democrats, protect entrenched power, and risk losing ground for conservatives across the country than deliver the fair maps South Carolinians deserve ahead of the 2026 midterms.

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South Carolina’s New Social Media Law Puts Every User Under Age Surveillance

South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster signed H.B. 4591 on May 19, turning the Stop Harm from Addictive Social Media Act into a law that will reshape how every resident of the state uses major social media platforms.

The bill passed with almost no opposition, clearing the House 115-0 and the Senate 42-1. It takes effect January 1, 2027, and it brings with it a surveillance apparatus aimed at all users.

We obtained a copy of the bill for you here.

The law, sponsored by Rep. Brandon Guffey (R-York), requires covered platforms to repeatedly estimate and verify the age of every South Carolina account holder.

The stated goal is child protection. The way it claims to do that is continuous behavioral analysis of anyone who spends enough time on a platform, combined with escalating confidence thresholds and penalties of ten thousand dollars per violation if platforms get it wrong.

Here’s how the age estimation system works. Once an account holder hits 25 cumulative hours on a platform within six months (the “first trigger date”), the platform has 14 days to estimate whether that person is over 15, with 80% confidence.

At 50 hours (the “second trigger date”), the confidence requirement jumps to 90%. After that, the platform must update its estimate every 100 hours of use, or whenever it runs data analytics on the user for any other reason, whichever comes sooner.

That last clause is easy to miss and it means any time a platform runs its profiling algorithms on you for ad targeting, content recommendations, or anything else, it also has to re-evaluate your estimated age. The law essentially piggybacks mandatory age surveillance onto whatever commercial surveillance platforms already conduct, expanding the scope of both.

Because platforms face significant liability if they can’t meet these confidence thresholds, the law creates powerful incentives to harvest far more sensitive data about users than they do today, including about minors.

A platform that guesses wrong faces $10,000 per violation. A platform that overinvests in behavioral profiling to avoid those fines faces no penalty at all. The incentive structure points in one direction.

The bill claims it “does not create any duty on the part of a covered social media platform to request, collect, or retain any information from or about any account holder” and that age estimates must be “derived based on information collected and retained by the covered social media platform in the ordinary course of operation.”

This is the bill’s central fiction. Platforms that can’t achieve 80% or 90% confidence from existing data will need to collect more data, or face financial ruin from accumulated violations. The law doesn’t mandate new data collection in the same way that holding a knife to your wallet doesn’t mandate you hand over cash.

For users classified as children (under 16), the restrictions are extensive. Accounts require verifiable parental consent, with privacy settings locked to the most restrictive levels by default.

Platforms cannot show children profile-based feeds, profile-based advertising, or any “addictive interface features,” a category that includes infinite scrolling, auto-play video, push notifications, and display of personal metrics like reaction counts.

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Major Victory For South Carolina Republicans As Redistricting Map Clears House

The South Carolina House of Representatives approved a new congressional map early Wednesday, sending the redistricting bill to the state Senate after Democrats attempted to slow the process with hundreds of amendments, as reported by Townhall.

The new map, approved under House Bill 5683, passed the lower chamber with a final vote of 74-36, according to posts from redistricting trackers and South Carolina Republican officials.

The map would create a 7-0 Republican congressional delegation by drawing out Rep. Jim Clyburn, D-S.C., from his current district.

The redistricting push is part of a special session called by South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster. McMaster had previously been noncommittal on the effort before getting behind the process.

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MS NOW’s Sanders Townsend: Clyburn’s District ‘Looks Like It Was Gerrymandered’

On Tuesday’s broadcast of MS NOW’s “The Weeknight,” co-host Symone Sanders Townsend said that Rep. James Clyburn’s (D-SC) district “already looks like it was gerrymandered.”

While speaking with Clyburn, Sanders Townsend said, “Congressman, we have a map of the sixth congressional district that you currently represent, and we’re going to put it on the screen. Before the creation of this district, South Carolina had actually not elected a black representative to Congress for about 93 years, 1897, I believe. The district’s southern border touches Georgia. It goes around the center of Charleston. It cuts through Black Belt farmland to the state capital of Columbia. It contains the Gullah Geechee coastal homeland. The district is home to both of the state’s two historically black colleges — two of the state’s historically black colleges, and even some of the poorest people in the United States. That’s Barnwell County, Allendale County. It is rural. The district itself already looks like it was gerrymandered. I don’t understand how you represented people in Columbia and Charleston. So the way in which they are talking about eliminating this particular district and carving it up, I think it is, yes, about you, sir, but it’s also, specifically, about the voting power of black people to elect the representative of their choice.”

She then asked Clyburn about arguments from Republicans that he’s to the left of the state, which Clyburn answered by saying the state votes about 40% Democratic. Clyburn also stated that he gets votes from white voters as well.

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South Carolina County Unanimously Rejects Mosque Permit After Residents Protest: ‘Islam Is Not a Religion — It’s a Takeover’

South Carolina’s Lancaster County Council voted unanimously last week to deny a conditional-use permit for a proposed Islamic Mosque and community center in the Indian Land area after angry residents passionately spoke out against it.

The rejection came after more than two hours of intense public testimony in which multiple residents warned that the mosque would import Sharia law and represent an ideological takeover incompatible with American values.

One resident went viral after she declared, “This is not about a place of worship; this is not about religion; Islam is not a religion, it’s a takeover.”

She went on to read a passage from the Quran, which states, “Make war on the infidels living in your neighborhood.”

“I just want to say this is not about a place of worship. This is not about religion. Islam is not a religion; it’s a takeover. And if you’ve done any studies, if you listen to any of the news media, you will find out that that is true,” she added.

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Republican South Carolina Senate Leader Kills GOP’s Redistricting Effort: ‘Competition Makes Us Better’

The Republican leader of South Carolina’s state Senate defied President Donald Trump and voted against a redistricting effort that could have slashed the state’s only Democrat-led congressional district, arguing that “South Carolina is stronger when we have a vibrant Democratic Party.”

State Sen. Shane Massey’s (R-NC) first time talking to the president came last week when Trump called him to discuss how he wanted the redistricting to happen, the New York Times reported.

Contrary to Trump’s wishes, Massey joined four other Republicans in voting against the proposal that would have allowed for the Senate to reconvene later this month for a redistricting effort.

The legislature has until 5:00 p.m. on Thursday, May 14, to approve House-passed changes to the sine die resolution, which would state what the lawmakers can take up after that date.

“Now, the state appears unlikely to join the redistricting frenzy that has taken hold across the country,” the Times reported.

Massey delivered a dramatic speech on the floor Tuesday before the 29-17 vote, arguing that he has “too much southern blood in me to surrender.”

“Our state is stronger with vibrant parties,” the senate leader stated. “I think we, as a whole, are stronger when we have a clash of ideas. I think that’s true at the national level, I think it’s true at the state level.”

He continued on to argue that “Republicans are stronger when the Democrat Party is vibrant and viable.”

“You are. Competition makes you better, y’all,” he added.

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