Free Republic

Rep. Nancy Mace’s (R-S.C.) entrance into South Carolina’s GOP gubernatorial primary is setting the stage for a tumultuous intraparty battle as five Republicans vie for the state’s top executive post. Early polling shows Mace and the state’s Attorney General Alan Wilson (R) leading the primary pack, with Mace calling the primary a two-way race between her and Wilson. The two officials already have a contentious history. Earlier this year the congresswoman accused four men of sexual misconduct in a speech on the House floor and accused the state attorney general of not prosecuting the men. However, other contenders, including Lt....

Former South Carolina Lt. Gov. André Bauer (R) is suspending his Senate campaign that sought to primary Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), saying he doesn’t want to further contribute to division in the country. “But I believe now, more than ever, that in order for us to truly move forward, we must stop tearing one another down with lies and division,” he continued. “I cannot and will not be part of a political climate that rewards deception over honesty, or ambition over unity. God calls us to walk in truth, to speak life, and to be peacemakers—not power seekers.” Bauer said...

“I watched the black-white stuff start on Thursday night.” In the 2024 election, Barack Obama found himself in the unexpected position of fighting against the rise of the second black president. Opposing him was nearly every black Democrat, from Rep. Jim Clyburn, who helped put Biden in the White House in exchange for promises to appoint a black woman as his VP and to the Supreme Court, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and DNC Chair Jaime Harrison, who were determined to make Kamala the candidate. Biden’s debate collapse had created a historic moment of the worst possible kind. Dems needed...

South Carolina GOP Rep. Nancy Mace on Monday officially announced her 2026 bid for governor of the state. Mace announced her much-expected run on a campaign website that reads: “Nancy Mace for Governor,” with a video of several media clips compiled together, in addition to President Trump calling her a fighter, saying that “when she sets her sight on something, she’s tough.” On Sunday evening, Mace posted on social media that on Monday that she would make a "Big Announcement," making her bid almost certain. She enters a crowded and competitive GOP primary field for the seat of Republican Gov....

Rep. Ralph Norman (R-SC), who announced his run for South Carolina governor last week, picked up two endorsements on Monday.Norman, currently a House Freedom Caucus member and a member of Congress since 2017, kicked off his campaign with a rally in Rock Hill on Sunday.“We do not need more career politicians or lawyers running government. We need business leaders, people who have signed the front of a paycheck and people who have signed the back of a paycheck. I am running for governor to shake things up,” Norman said Sunday.As governor, Norman plans to push tort reform, popular elections for...

He joins an increasingly crowded field hoping to take control of one of South Carolina’s Senate seats. President Donald Trump has sought a court-ordered deposition of Rupert Murdoch as part of his ongoing defamation lawsuit against the Wall Street Journal over its reporting on his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein.The president specifically asked that the court set the timeline for Murdoch's deposition to 15 days, Reuters reported.Trump has struggled to contain political fallout from his administration's handling of the Epstein case and reports about his relationship with the late billionaire have persisted throughout the controversy. The Wall Street Journal, for its...

A lone Republican has risked President Donald Trump's ire after voting with Democrats in a bid to release the Jeffrey Epstein files. California Democrat Rep. Ro Khanna pushed an amendment to upcoming crypto legislation that would have forced Attorney General Pam Bondi to release all Epstein-related documents. Bondi would have to share the files on a 'publicly accessible website' within 30 days of passage. However, the effort was foiled, failing five to seven, during a Monday night vote by the House Rules Committee, a group of lawmakers that generally sign off on legislation before it gets a final vote on...

COLUMBIA, S.C. - A former Columbia gas station owner accused of killing a 14-year-old boy appeared in court on Monday to request bond for a second time. Rick Chow is accused of chasing Cyrus Carmack-Belton from his gas station and convenience store on Parklane Road in May of 2023 and then shooting him in the back. Prosecutors say he falsely accused the teenager of stealing bottled water. Chow requested Monday’s second bond hearing after a judge initially denied his bond on the murder charge almost two years ago. “He was shot in the back, an act of cowardice and cruelty...

California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Tuesday launched a two-day tour of South Carolina, meeting voters across rural areas — and some GOP strongholds — in the early-voting state, the latest signal that the Democrat is eyeing a 2028 run for president. Over the course of Tuesday and Wednesday, Newsom is slated to make a total of eight stops across the state, a trip that state Democratic Party officials have said includes coffee shops, small businesses and churches. At the first of those, a coffee shop in the city of Florence, Gavin shook hands with nearly all of the roughly 100...

The Supreme Court has ruled 6-3 that South Carolina has the right to defund the Planned Parenthood abortion business. The pro-life state wants to be able to block taxpayer funding for the abortion business under Medicaid, but the abortion company sued to block that action. Today, the Supreme Court ruled South Carolina has the power to block funding. In the decision, written by Justice Neil Gorsuch, the Supreme Court said Medicaid laws do not give individuals the right to bring federal lawsuits against states. The high court’s ruling means that the state can direct Medicaid funding—funds intended to help low-income...

Thursday morning saw a flurry of decisions and updates from the Supreme Court of the United States. Many were helpfully captured in a long thread by legal expert Jonathan Turley on X, who chronicled the rapid-fire announcements. Buried in that thread was a key decision that SCOTUS made in the case of Medina v. Planned Parenthood South Atlantic. “We have our second opinion. It is Medina v. Planned Parenthood, an important case that has not drawn as much attention,” Turley explained. “It is written by Justice Gorsuch in a 6-3 opinion.” Turley further explained: “The Court considered whether there is...

Senate Budget Committee Chair Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) has unveiled a plan to override Homeland Security Committee Chair Rand Paul’s (R-Ky.) proposal to fund border security and immigration enforcement activities at roughly half the amount favored by Senate and House Republican leaders. Paul created an uproar two weeks ago when he unveiled his portion of the Trump agenda megabill that would spend $6.5 billion on completing President Trump’s border wall and $22.5 billion on expanding detention facilities for migrants. Now Graham has answered with a move of his own, unveiling a proposal to restore funding for the border wall and Immigration...

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) in a Sunday morning interview pushed back on claims that President Trump acted outside his Constitutional authority by ordering strikes on Iran. “No, he was within his Article II authority,” Graham said in an interview on NBC News’s “Meet the Press,” when asked if Trump violated the U.S. Constitution by “acting unilaterally.” “Congress can declare war or cut off funding,” Graham continued. “We can’t be the commander in chief. You can’t have 535 commander in chiefs.” “If you don’t like what the president does, in terms of war, you can cut off the funding. But declaring...

Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) is facing an uphill re-election battle due to declining favorability numbers among Republican primary voters, a new survey from one of the most accurate pollsters found. The new poll, which was conducted by Quantus Insights, surveyed 600 registered voters in the Palmetto State between June 10-13. In terms of overall approval among all voters, Graham finds himself in the red, with 41 percent of respondents voicing approval and 46 percent voicing disapproval. An additional 13 percent of respondents remain undecided. Among Republican respondents, 22 percent said they will “definitely” be backing a challenger to the longtime...

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) slammed Sen. Lindsey Graham’s (R-S.C.) push for Russian sanctions, calling his bill “self-defeating economic warfare.” Graham’s sanctions bill on Russia would impose a 500 percent tariff on imports from any country that buys Russian oil, gas, uranium and other products. The legislation has more than 80 co-sponsors in the Senate, potentially making it veto-proof. But GOP senators are waiting on President Trump to move ahead with the legislation, and Trump said this week he hasn’t even looked at it. Trump has also said he doesn’t want to undermine the chances of a peace deal between Russia...

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) says Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) is using President Trump’s legislative agenda to “secretly explode” the Pentagon’s budget by adding $150 billion in military spending onto the national debt. “This bill is going to spend $300 billion in the first two years … $300 billion on military and border,” Paul, a critic of the House-passed version of the GOP mega bill, told Fox Business host Larry Kudlow in an interview on Wednesday. Paul said the spending cuts in the bill amount to $1.5 trillion over 10 years or about $150 billion per year. “In the first year...

On Sunday, Politico published a story titled "2 states, 1 tepid view of Kamala Harris and her political future." A much more accurate title of the story by Melanie Mason and Brakkton Booker would be "2 states, 2 tepid views of Kamala Harris and her political future."Although Mason and Booker tossed cold water on the idea of Harris running for president again via the South Carolina primary they were also much less than enthusiastic about her running for governor of California. If they didn't quite toss cold water on that campaign they seemed to throw much less than even lukewarm...

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz sought to energize activists at a Democratic state convention in South Carolina, as the party's 2024 vice presidential nominee works to keep up the high national profile he gained when Kamala Harris selected him as her running mate. Walz, a former schoolteacher who went on to serve in Congress and then became his state’s governor, keynoted the South Carolina gathering in Columbia, traditionally a showcase for national-level Democrats and White House hopefuls. Speaking to convention delegates for more than half an hour, Walz used colorful language and spoke plainly as he lobbed...

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) seems to be vulnerable in his home state of South Carolina’s Republican primary, a Lynch for Senate poll commissioned with Pulse Opinion Research found. The top lines of the survey spell bad news for Graham, as 57 percent of Republican primary voters in his state “would not vote for Lindsey Graham if the election were held today,” according to the press release. The poll found that likely voters in South Carolina are “dissatisfied with Lindsey Graham and are just as likely to vote for a more conservative, America First candidate.”

At least 11 people were injured Saturday night when gunfire erupted during a Memorial Day weekend gathering on a docked charter boat in Little River, South Carolina, police said. Horry County Police said in an online statement Monday morning that 10 of the people hurt in the shooting were hospitalized with gunshot wounds, including one who was in critical but stable condition. An eleventh victim suffered a non-gunfire-related injury, police said. A motive for the shooting remains under investigation, and detectives are working to identify those responsible for the shooting. "Thus far, the investigation indicates that the shooting was an...