Message from the Chair
Good morning.
If you are like me, you are tired, discouraged, and extremely worried. Those feelings are perfectly understandable.
Across South Carolina, voters appeared to have retreated towards extreme conservatism. Locally, we lost a truly good man who has represented Greenwood faithfully in the Senate and in other positions for many years. To Floyd Nicholson – we are proud that you remained true to your good character during this campaign and we are deeply grateful for your service and example.
A pair of newcomers, Denise Waldrep and Jose Villa, ran campaigns that were just about as good, if not better, than what has been done before. Unfortunately, this part of the state is still entrenched in ideology that just wasn’t able to be moved in the past few months.
Congratulations to Anne Parks for retaining her position as House Representative for Greenwood and McCormick! We will ask you to keep the flame burning for us in Columbia!
Matthew Miller, while winning more votes than any other candidate in Greenwood Ward 5, was not quite able to cross the finish line with the necessary 50%. This seat will require a runoff with details to be determined. Please reach out to Matthew directly if you still have some fight in you to help him win reelection.
Hosea Cleveland ran a campaign that was several levels above what he has done in the past, but it wasn’t enough to dethrone a Congressman who has called for term limits for everyone but himself.
We’re all profoundly shocked and disappointed in the outcome of Jaime Harrison’s election campaign. It certainly wasn’t his loss; it was a loss for our state and for our nation. His message of hope and positivity is exactly what our nation needed, but unfortunately his time was not today.
At the Presidential level, we looked for a definitive message yesterday: An unequivocal repudiation of the corruption and incompetence that has taken over the People’s White House. We live in a world of instant gratification and we did not get that last night. However, know this: From what I’m seeing in the daily feeds this morning, things are trending very positively for Joe Biden. As the vote tallies continue to come in, the numbers are increasingly going in our favor. Hope is still on the menu! Let us pray that the legal process of allowing every vote to be counted continues.
One thing is clear: If we are going to make positive change for South Carolina and pull our state from the bottom of all the rankings year after year, we are going to have to do something different. We need to find a way to change the hearts and minds of our neighbors so that when we do have great candidates to field, they will have a chance to do battle based on record, qualifications, and ideas rather than running into the constant wall of blanket ideology.
This type of change will take time and most importantly, dedication. The biggest steps our country have taken in history did not come from overnight victories, but rather through decades of toil, hardship, and frequent disappointment. Feel free to let your emotions run their course, but at the end of the day, I ask you to not lose the desire to fight for what we know is right.
Defeat is never found wherever the struggle continues.
