South Carolina Politics & News
The Daily Signal covers South Carolina politics with reporting on state leadership, education policy, economic development, and the Palmetto State’s role in presidential primaries and conservative policymaking.
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- Opinion
South Carolina Lawmakers Must Protect Parent Rights. Here’s What Families Need to Know.
It happened again: A parent, this one in South Carolina, has accused teachers at her child’s school of hiding information about him from his family. Fortunately, state lawmakers are considering a proposal to protect parents from educators who insert a wedge between them and their children. Members of the state’s House of Representatives have advanced…Jonathan Butcher -
- Opinion
Taxpayers Forced to Fund University Drag Shows
My brother is being forced to pay for a drag queen performance. At the University of South Carolina Beaufort campus, my brother (Jesse speaking here), freshman Joshua Castrinos, was leaving his rhetoric and composition class when he noticed a flyer on the bulletin board for a drag queen bingo show: The show is being sponsored…Jesse Castrinos -
- Opinion
SC Lawmakers Seem to Be Allergic to Educational Opportunity
Why do South Carolina lawmakers want to make it more difficult for families to educate their children? Lawmakers are misinterpreting the very law they approved just last year that creates more learning opportunities, and now the state is on the brink of becoming one of the least family-friendly locales in the southeast. Fortunately, other state…Jonathan Butcher -
Families Fight Back as South Carolina Court Strikes Down School Choice
South Carolina’s school choice program faced a crushing setback when the state’s Supreme Court ruled it unconstitutional after hundreds of students had already started classes at new schools. However, a grassroots response has emerged to help families affected by the ruling and to renew legislative efforts to restore educational freedom in the state. On May…Wendy Damron -
Maine Pulls a South Carolina
Editor’s note: This is a lightly edited transcript of today’s video from Daily Signal Senior Contributor Victor Davis Hanson. Subscribe to our YouTube channel to see more of his videos. Hello, this is Victor Davis Hanson for The Daily Signal. President Donald Trump had a meeting of the governors in the White House recently, this week,…Victor Davis Hanson -
South Carolina Court Strips Families of Educational Freedom
South Carolina dad David Warner is afraid to tell his sixth-grade son that he will have to leave his school, teachers, and friends because the state Supreme Court struck down the Palmetto State’s school voucher program. “Today definitely felt like a kick in the stomach,” Warner said. The Warner family was using an education savings…Elizabeth Troutman Mitchell -
Supreme Court Rebuffs Claim of Partisan South Carolina Redistricting as Race Bias
Four years after the 2020 census and the redistricting that occurred across the nation, the U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday held that a lower court in South Carolina failed to distinguish between political and racial motivations by that state’s Republican-controlled Legislature when lawmakers made slight revisions in the boundary lines of the state’s seven congressional…Hans von Spakovsky -
Supreme Court Rules South Carolina Did Not Racially Gerrymander Congressional District Map
The Supreme Court ruled 6-3 Thursday that a lower court “clearly erred” when it held that South Carolina racially gerrymandered its congressional district map. The majority held that the “circumstantial evidence falls far short of showing that race, not partisan preferences, drove the districting process” behind the creation of the map. “First, a party challenging a map’s…Katelynn Richardson -
New School Choice Program Launches in South Carolina. Parents are Winning.
Despite the most well-funded efforts to stop education reform, the school choice movement still clearly has momentum. The fruits of those efforts can be seen during this year’s National School Choice Week (Jan. 21-27), which saw a new program just launched in South Carolina. School choice programs got a huge boost during the COVID-19 lockdowns….Jarrett Stepman -
South Carolina Republicans Slammed for Pushing ‘Trump-Hating’ Pro-Abortion Democrat for Judicial Appointment
South Carolina Republicans are drawing fire from the South Carolina Freedom Caucus for pushing a pro-abortion former Democratic House leader as the state’s next circuit court judge for the 5th Judicial Circuit. James Smith, the 2018 Democratic gubernatorial nominee and the former Democratic leader of South Carolina’s House of Representatives, is described by one Planned…Mary Margaret Olohan -
South Carolina Teachers Union Out to Deprive Students of Learning Options
Barely six months after South Carolina lawmakers approved legislation allowing K-12 students to customize their education, the state affiliate of the National Education Association is attempting to force children to remain in assigned public schools. The South Carolina Education Association is the latest in a long line of education special-interest groups that oppose parental rights…Jonathan Butcher -
South Carolina Supreme Court Upholds Ban on Post-Heartbeat Abortions
In June 2022, in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the U.S. Supreme Court said what we can all read for ourselves, that the U.S. Constitution “does not confer a right to abortion.” That shifted the venue for those who want to eliminate any legal protection for the unborn to state courts and state constitutions….Thomas Jipping -
South Carolina Supreme Court Rules State’s ‘Heartbeat’ Abortion Law Constitutional
South Carolina’s “heartbeat” abortion law is constitutional, the state Supreme Court ruled Wednesday, vacating a preliminary injunction that had barred the measure from taking effect. In May, South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster, a Republican, signed into law the Fetal Heartbeat and Protection From Abortion Act. The measure restricted abortions in the state once a fetal heartbeat is…T.A. DeFeo -
South Carolina Supreme Court Strikes Down State’s ‘Heartbeat’ Abortion Law
The South Carolina Supreme Court on Thursday narrowly decided that the state’s ban on most abortions after six weeks violated the state constitution. Since the U.S. Supreme Court in June correctly held that the U.S. Constitution “does not confer a right to abortion,” attacks on legal protection for the unborn have shifted to state courts…Thomas Jipping -
Over Democrats’ Opposition, South Carolina Passes Bill to Keep Males Out of Women’s Sports
South Carolina’s Republican-dominated House passed legislation Tuesday banning males from women’s sports despite Democrats’ stall tactics. Democrats attempted to delay the vote by proposing an estimated 1,000 amendments, according to The Associated Press. Debate on the amendments Tuesday lasted eight hours, with Democrats proposing measures such as renaming the bill the Discrimination Capital of the United States…Laurel Duggan -
South Carolina Lawsuit Challenges State’s Blaine Amendment Bias Against Religious, Private Schools
With American education turned upside down during the pandemic, the South Carolina Supreme Court barred Gov. Henry McMaster from distributing any of the funds that the state had received under the federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act to private and religious schools. But private and religious schools and colleges in the state aren’t…John G. Malcolm -
Supreme Court Acts to Protect Election Integrity in South Carolina
The U.S. Supreme Court acted in the best interests of the voters of South Carolina on Monday by dissolving a preliminary injunction issued by a lower court. The high court responded to an emergency appeal. The injunction from U.S. District Judge J. Michelle Childs, an Obama appointee, would have prevented South Carolina from applying its…Hans von Spakovsky -
South Carolina Gives Parents Confidence About School This Fall
The COVID-19 pandemic has ushered in months of uncertainty for families with children in K-12 schools, but South Carolina officials on Monday made one thing clear: The state’s families will have more options this academic year. Gov. Henry McMaster, a Republican, announced creation of a private school scholarship program for students from low- and middle-income…Jonathan Butcher -
South Carolina Democrats Fight Against University Constitution Course
South Carolina Democrats argued for more than an hour to prevent legislation that would require state universities to teach a “Constitution 101” course Tuesday. The Republican-proposed bill would update an existing 1924 requirement to teach the course, which the University of South Carolina has hitherto ignored. The legislation has already passed in the Senate, but Democrats…Anders Hagstrom -
South Carolina Stands Up to University, Defends Study of Founding Documents
Should college students be required to study America’s founding ideals and the founding documents from which they emanate? Many people in South Carolina believe they should. Last month, the South Carolina Senate passed the Reinforcing College Education on America’s Constitutional Heritage Act (REACH Act), which requires all college students at state colleges to take a three-credit-hour…Jameson Broggi