Governor – The governor of the South Carolina is the head of state. Under the South Carolina Constitution, the governor is also the head of government, serving as the chief executive of the South Carolina executive branch. The governor's responsibilities include delivering yearly "State of the State" addresses to the General Assembly, submitting an executive budget and ensuring that state laws are enforced.Lt. Governor – The primary responsibility of the lieutenant governor is to act as the president of the South Carolina Senate. (The lieutenant governor presides over the Senate but has no vote unless the Senate is equally divided.)In South Carolina, the gubernatorial nominee is selected in the primary. The gubernatorial nominee then chooses a lieutenant gubernatorial running mate, and they run together on a single ticket in the general election.NOTE:This candidate’s responses were not available before our publication deadline. Voters are welcome to encourage the candidate to share their views. Updated responses will be posted as they are received.
I’m running to bring new leadership to South Carolina and build a state that we can be proud of. I’m going to fix the roads, provide better access to health care, especially mental healthcare, and make life here more affordable.
The biggest challenges facing South Carolina are: our poor infrastructure, lack of access to health and mental health care, and rising cost of living. To address our poor infrastructure, I will make sure our public works are properly funded and to shift responsibility (and funding) to counties and municipalities that can act faster than the state. For healthcare, I plan on expanding Medicaid and funding rural hospitals, guaranteeing there is an OBGYN in every county, and making sure mental health is treated with the same urgency as physical health. To address affordability, I plan on building affordable housing, reducing the burden of income tax, mandating a livable, minimum wage, and helping unions to secure better conditions for workers.
I filed a moratorium on all data center construction in SC until the centers can propose a plan to the counties and state of how they will provide their own energy, protect our resources, and use our labor force in construction. If they cannot do those things, I am fully against their coming to our state.
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When it comes to experience, passion and determination, I am the only candidate prepared to lead our state.
I have started or helped start four successful businesses in four different industries. I worked at the highest levels of government for two American presidents. I was Dick Riley’s chief of staff at the US Department of Education.
In serving my community and my state, I chaired the board of Prisma Health, South Carolina’s largest health care system; I chaired the board of The Nature Conservancy, the state’s largest conservation organization and I chaired the board of Converse College in Spartanburg. When it comes to the issues that confront us in the areas of infrastructure, conservation, health care and education, I’m ready to lead
We have added a million people over the last 15 years and we will add a million more in the next decade. We are not ready.
Our infrastructure is crumbling, urban sprawl and unmanaged development threatens our clean water, our family farms, our salt marshes, beaches and oceans. We have 500,000 uninsured South Carolinians and the cost of just about every is going up every day.
I will proposed Medicaid expansion in the first week I’m elected. I will convene a blue ribbon committee to create a statewide infrastructure/conservation/development plan and I will seek further investments in early childhood education and workforce development.
We do not yet have our hands or our heads around the facts on data centers. I will seek an absolute moratorium on data center development until such facts are known. At this moment I am returning from the data center site in Marion County…a data center (Stream Data) that was approved under an NDA with county council in the dead of night in a snowstorm. The 60 page memo prepared by the data center developer is replete with half truths and outright distortions. The actual name of the company is not disclosed. This is the kind of reckless, irresponsible development that is bad for South Carolina and its ratepayers.
