When I first ran for office, someone asked the question, “If a bill is good for the state, but not necessarily good for Greenville County, how would you vote?” At the time, I gave the typical, political, non-answer and said it would depend on what the positive and negatives are, as every bill is different. However, once I was elected to the Senate, it was made clear that as a state Senator, your votes should be in the best interests of the people you represent, as well as the state of South Carolina.

Redistricting

The issue of redistricting the Congressional map came up during the first week of May. On Thursday, May 7, we were presented with proposed maps that would give South Carolina the chance for a 7-0 Republican/Democrat split vs. our current 6-1 split. 

Despite plenty of questions about the map, the real underlying question was “Do you want to help President Trump have a Republican controlled Congress to work with over his last two years to complete his agenda, or do you want the next two years spent getting nothing done and listening to Impeachment talk the whole time?” This created a new question – would you do something, based on your political beliefs, that would be good for your country but not necessarily good for your state?

I chose to support the redistricting bill because I would like to see President Trump have the opportunity to complete his agenda for the next two years, despite having reservations on the process. Every vote I took, including last Tuesday’s vote for cloture, was in support of the bill. The last cloture vote failed 20-24. 

When that failed, a motion was made to continue the bill later, primarily because early voting had started and over 25,000 votes had been cast by lunch. The expected vote in favor of the motion was 24-20. I voted in favor to continue the bill later. The final vote was 26-18.

I could have hidden my vote, knowing it was not needed for the motion to pass, but as Senator Richard Cash said, ” My conscience and common sense told me it was over.” By the end of the day, over 54,000 votes were cast, which is a new record for a primary and more than twice the number of people that voted in the 2024 Presidential primary.

How soon will we return to redistricting? I do not know. My thought is we need to wait until the 2030 census is complete because by that time, we will likely pick up another Congressional seat based on our growth. We must accurately determine where those growth numbers are located, so we can consider redistricting wholistically for both the Congressional map and the S.C. House and Senate.

Despite this particular issue being so polarizing, I am proud to say we accomplished a good bit this session. I typically share a list of bills the Senate passed, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they made it to the Governor’s desk for signing. 

Therefore, I am including this link to all the bills that have been signed by the Governor and a few that are still in conference committee, including the Budget. We should be back at the State House before the end of June to vote on the final budget, in addition to any of the conference committee bills that reach an agreement.

Don’t forget, you can look up any of these bills online at scstatehouse.gov.

If you have questions, concerns, or ideas, I encourage you to call my Columbia office at (803) 212-6148. My assistant, Ja’vell Bynoe, will be happy to help you.

As always, thank you for the opportunity to serve.