Free Republic

South Carolina's Tim Scott on Tuesday became the first African-American senator to win election in the South since Reconstruction. The Palmetto State Republican was appointed by Gov. Nikki Haley to the office after former Sen. Jim DeMint resigned in November 2012. In this year's midterms, he outlasted Democratic challenger Joyce Dickerson. The election was only to fill the last two years of DeMint's term. Scott will have to run again in 2016 in order to earn a full six-year term. Scott's win also made him the first African-American in U.S. history to be elected to both the House and the...

(VIDEO-AT-LINK)Liberal MSNBC contributor Jimmy Williams said the “old white people” in the South who vote Republican are “going to die someday” and hopefully usher in a new era of Democratic rule in the region. Host Krystal Ball, a former failed Democratic congressional candidate, asked Williams whether white Southerners should just be written off by the party, but Williams said never, saying that since they are “for people” and Republicans aren’t, they would eventually win the day. “Mitt Romney only won South Carolina with 53 [percent], John McCain with 52,” he said. “That’s a changing South. Those old white people? They’re...

COLUMBIA, S.C. — By winning re-election Tuesday, Republican Gov. Nikki Haley became just the fourth S.C. governor elected to a second term in office. But as the 42-year-old Bamberg native prepares to push workforce training and road-repair plans when the General Assembly reconvenes in January, political observers and allies wonder if Haley will finish her final four-year go-around. A handful of 2016 GOP White House hopefuls already are courting Haley, whose endorsement could help them in South Carolina’s first in the South presidential primary.....

Representative Trey Gowdy defended efforts by the House GOP to pass an improved version of immigration reform. The South Carolina Republican, who has criticized the comprehensive immmigration bill passed by the Senate, argued that Republican opposition to immigration legislation amounts to a defense of the status quo that is neither responsible nor politically tenable for Republicans: “If I were in California in a swing district . . . I would at least want to say, ‘The party I represent has the following positions.’ And I don’t think that in every case, arguing that the current law is sufficient is the...

CNN states that Senator Lindsey Graham was recorded saying "white men who are in male-only clubs are going to do great in my presidency" but his campaign says the quote is taken out of context.

COLUMBIA, SC — THE GOOD THING about Brad Hutto is that he doesn’t try to convince us that Lindsey Graham is a liberal. Which is to say that, unlike the six opponents Mr. Graham easily swept aside in the Republican primary, and unlike the reality-show self-promoter who is self-financing a quixotic independent campaign against him, Mr. Hutto is not unhinged from reality. To the contrary, Mr. Hutto has had a respectable career in the state Senate, where, despite being part of an ever-dwindling minority party, he has had a significant amount of influence on public policy — sometimes for good,...

"We are going to escort whore out the door."His reaction afterward?No oops...just laughter. Wow.Speaking of war on women...sheesh

A plane from Washington D.C.'S Dulles International Airport has been grounded at Columbia Metropolitan Airport due to a sick passenger on board, according a spokesperson for the Columbia Metropolitan Airport. The passenger had a reported nosebleed, and the plane was being held on the ramp Friday morning, according to airport spokeswoman Kaela Harmon. A nosebleed is a symptom of advanced Ebola, a deadly virus that has killed nearly 5,000 worldwide, including one victim in the United States. Caution is high because of recent outbreaks of the disease in Dallas, and a confirmed case of the virus in New York announced...

Rep. James Clyburn's (D-S.C.) Republican challenger referred to same-sex couples as "gremlins" and "bullies" in a Facebook post urging supporters to oppose gay marriage at the polls this fall. Anthony Culler, the GOP nominee for Clyburn's seat, wrote a Facebook post on Oct. 14 decrying same-sex marriage as "a pestilence that has descended on our society, against our will, by those in the courts and government that do not value the traditional family."

While Sen. Ted Cruz may be a star among tea party faithful and other more socially conservative Republicans, he has been less active on the midterm campaign trail as some candidates fear he could polarize voters, The Hill reports. More welcomed in states with tight midterms contests have been Cruz's conservative brothers in the Senate, Marco Rubio of Florida and Rand Paul of Kentucky, who have been counted on to support election bids across the country, the Hill noted. “It’s almost exactly a year ago to the day when [Cruz] led to the government shutdown," Republican strategist Rich Galen told...

A bipartisan group of senators from across the political spectrum—from Elizabeth Warren and Patrick J. Leahy to Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio—wants President Barack Obama to speak out and act to support Hong Kong’s democracy movement.They don’t specify exactly what they want Obama to do—they say “demonstrable, meaningful steps”—but note that a 1992 law “authorizes you to suspend trade and economic provisions should Beijing not provide sufficient autonomy for Hong Kong.”Leahy, the Vermont Democrat who is president pro tempore and Judiciary chairman, leads the letter with Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., and Rubio.“The people of Hong Kong have sent a strong...

LIKELY 2016 HOPEFUL HEADS TO PALMETTO UPSTATE By FITSNEWS  ||  U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz - a presumptive candidate for president of the United States – will travel to early-voting South Carolina this week for a series of events.Cruz’s trip is focused on the socially conservative Upstate – where “Republicans” are currently up in arms this week after the U.S. Supreme Court’s “non-ruling” on gay marriage appears to have paved the way for the demise of the state’s 2006 same sex marriage ban. In fact Cruz will campaign at one point with S.C. Attorney General Alan Wilson – who has drawn criticism for his defense of the...

A Supreme Court order legalizing same-sex marriage in five states reverberated further on Thursday, with the attorney general of West Virginia conceding that its ban on same-sex marriage was no longer defensible but South Carolina officials vowing to keep fighting to restrict marriage to a man and a woman. Since the Supreme Court decision on Monday and a ruling from a federal circuit court on Tuesday, new developments have appeared almost hourly as gay-rights advocates press for action in nine other states: Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Kansas, Montana, North Carolina, South Carolina, West Virginia and Wyoming.

Republican Party has – in years past – been fairly aggressive when it comes to rebuking liberal “Republicans” like U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham. That’s about to change, though … This week, a seismic shift within the party took place … as a key opponent of Graham was ousted from the organization. Former executive committeeman Bill Rhodes was unceremoniously booted from the Greenville GOP for “disloyalty” – namely refusing to support Graham’s candidacy. Two other executive committee members resigned from the party in protest of the way Rhodes was treated. Meanwhile another local Republican committeeman – Joshua Cook – was threatened...

<p>CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) — A South Carolina court has issued a marriage license to a same-sex couple despite the state's constitutional ban against the practice and the attorney general's pledge to defend it.</p>

<p>COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) -- The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday denied appeals from five states seeking to preserve gay-marriage bans. The move doesn’t mean same-sex marriages will begin immediately in South Carolina, but experts say such unions probably aren’t too far off.</p> <p>WHAT WILL THE ATTORNEY GENERAL DO?</p>

ORANGEBURG COUNTY, SC — Three men have been arrested following a weekend crime spree, according to the Orangeburg County Sheriff’s Office. The three “set out to terrorize residents and create havoc,” Sheriff Leroy Ravenell said. Kendalon Zarkee Curry, 21, Christian Dion Asher, 22, and Ja’Vall Radrickus Curry, 22, were arrested Monday, and bond was denied for all three, according to Ravenell. The three slammed into a metal fence and brick post outside of a home on Bryan Drive in a Chrysler New Yorker around 5 a.m. last Saturday, Ravenell said. “Before they made their getaway, they smashed up items inside...

ORANGEBURG, SC — An employee and ex-employee of an Orangeburg Applebee’s are accused of robbing the restaurant at gunpoint. Gordon Lamar Brown, 19, has been charged with armed robbery and Christopher Myron Nesbitt, 22, has been charged with armed robbery, kidnapping and possession of marijuana, according to the Orangeburg Department of Public Safety. Witnesses told police that two armed men entered the Applebee’s at 2360 Chestnut Street in Orangeburg, around 1 a.m. Tuesday morning with guns and wearing masks. The manager was in the office counting down the money drawers when one of the suspects approached him, threatened him and...

The history of the Democrat Party continued…. The Aaron Burr – Andrew Jackson connection Andrew Jackson was an unabashed enemy of American nationalism. To further his presidential ambitions, he cooperated with the dangerous Aaron Burr and his henchman Martin Van Buren; both of whom were doing the bidding of the infamous British secret service agent Jeremy Bentham. These four men worked for years to undermine the unity of the United States so the Louisiana and Florida Territories and Mexico could be seized by Burr and made a satellite of the British Empire with him as the new nation’s dictator. After...

There is evidence Burr unsuccessfully attempted to get the British to join in his scheme. In late 1806 after an extended stay at the home of his friend, Andrew Jackson, Burr gathered a small army in preparation for an invasion of New Orleans. When it became clear that their “secret” plan was no longer secret, one of Burr’s partners turned on him in February 1807. Burr was indicted for treason and eventually put on trial for one of the highest crimes against our nation. With the sort of political dirty trick that would become a Democrat hallmark, Burr was acquitted...