5/1 NEWSBREAK: Spain, Condon make Democratic history in S.C.

State Democrats elected veteran politico Christale Spain as the first Black woman to chair the S.C. Democratic Party at a Saturday convention. The convention’s 1,300 delegates also elected former Charleston County Council member Colleen Condon as their first vice chair, which made her become the first non-binary person elected on the party’s executive team.

Condon, a Charleston family lawyer who currently also is president of the Alliance for Full Acceptance, was the first out lesbian official in South Carolina when she served on council from 2005 to 2016.

“This vigorous election shows our readiness for the First in the Nation [presidential] primary,” Condon said on Facebook after the election. “We need everyone’s passion and ideas to accomplish our full potential.”

Also elected Saturday were Mayra Rivera Vazquez, former Beaufort County party chair, as second vice chair and first Hispanic candidate elected to the team, and Michelle Brandt as third vice-chair.

A recent opinion of note:

CP OPINION, Brack: On dysfunction, for what it’s worth

“In Washington, there’s dysfunction related to the debt ceiling, abortion, guns, the Jan. 6 overthrow attempt, the Supreme Court’s ethics, and continuing battles between the House and Senate. In South Carolina, there are continuing culture wars over — guess what — abortion, guns, court reform and battles between ideologies. Leaders are talking at each other, not to each other. They’re talking to their tribes, not working to bring everybody together.”

In other headlines:

11 hurt, including 9 shot, in Columbia park shooting. Two teens have been arrested in Richland County in relation to an early Saturday shooting at a teen party in Meadowlake Park in Columbia. Eleven people were hurt, including nine people who were shot. All are recovering. Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott pleaded for bond reform after the teens were back out of jail on the street soon after posting bond. At least one was involved in earlier shootings, he said.

CP NEWS: Near-total abortion ban blocked again in S.C. Senate. South Carolina senators narrowly rejected a near-total abortion ban last week, marking the third time a near-total abortion ban failed in the Republican-led chamber since the U.S. Supreme Court reversed Roe v. Wade last summer.

CP NEWS: Week in Review: S.C. House sends voucher bill to governor’s desk. The South Carolina House on Thursday voted 74-36 to give final approval to an education voucher bill that will clear the way for 15,000 students to be able to use public money for private school tuition. Gov. Henry McMaster has said he will sign the bill, a funding policy Republicans have been trying to pass for two decades.

2024: Some black voters frustrated with Biden. A look at what some Black voters are saying about President Biden’s reelection effort. Some say there’s a waning enthusiasm, but staunch supporter and U.S. Rep. Jim Clyburn says he doesn’t find that.

1 hurt in Mount Pleasant shrimp boat fire. One man was taken to the hospital after a shrimp boat caught fire and sank on the way to the Blessing of the Fleet in Mount Pleasant.

MUSC initiative inspires S.C.’s first Innovation Month. State leaders are celebrating Palmetto State pioneers in a new way.

How Charleston Co. will spend $900K of opioid money. Answer: Harm reduction strategies, new ways to help addicts and Narcan.