- BIG STORY: State Senate squirms over House gerrymander that throws out ballots
- ROUNDUP: S.C.’s Colbert offers final ‘Late Show’ good night
- LOWCOUNTRY, Ariail: On “redistricting”
- BRACK: Gather stories to get through emotional times
- MY TURN, Beasley: S.C. deserves better than partisan redistricting games
- MYSTERY PHOTO: River scene
- FEEDBACK: Send us your thoughts
State Senate squirms over House gerrymander that throws out ballots
By Jack O’Toole | With almost 3,000 absentee ballots already cast, the state Senate is debating legislation that would cancel the state’s June 9 congressional primary elections and hold them under new district lines later this summer.
Under the bill, South Carolina voters would still head to the ballot box on June 9 to cast their primary picks for U.S. Senate, governor, other state constitutional offices and S.C. House races as planned. Congressional primaries, though still on the June 9 ballot, would not be counted. A different primary would then be held in August.
Republicans have said that the last-minute redistricting effort, which passed the House in the early morning hours of May 20, is designed to give GOP candidates an opportunity to sweep all seven of the state’s congressional races this November by gerrymandering 17-term U.S. Rep. James Clyburn out of his 6th district seat.
“President Trump decisively won in South Carolina not once, not twice, but three times and Republicans have dominated statewide elections for many years,” bill sponsor Rep. Luke Rankin, R-Laurens, said prior to the vote. “It’s completely reasonable for the people that elected us here to expect that we send a full 7-0 delegation to Washington, D.C.”
Senate leader is foe
The bill is now facing tougher obstacles in the S.C. Senate, where Majority Leader Shane Massey, R-Edgefield, has emerged as one of its most potent foes.
In a May 12 floor speech, Massey argued the redistricting proposal would put the state’s six safe GOP seats at risk by dispersing Democratic voters now concentrated in Clyburn’s district — and that throwing out ballots already cast by South Carolinians serving overseas in the armed forces was fundamentally unfair.
“Every day you get closer to in-person early voting starting [on May 26], you’re going to get more absentee ballots in,” Massey reiterated to reporters late last week. “And the more ballots you have in, the bigger the problem is.”
Charleston Democratic Sen. Ed Sutton, who voted absentee in S.C. elections as a combat pilot in Afghanistan, hammered the ballot issue in a May 21 press conference, noting that the Senate debate will be playing out over Memorial Day weekend as the nation honors its war dead.
“How are we going to honor [their service] this Memorial Day weekend in South Carolina?” Sutton said. “We’re going to honor it by throwing out military ballots.”
How we got here
The S.C. House vote came on the sixth day of a bitterly contested special legislative session called by Gov. Henry McMaster, whose office said only two weeks ago that he did not plan to summon legislators back after the regular session ended on May 14.
But after an S.C. House measure to create a special redistricting session failed in the S.C. Senate on May 12, McMaster heeded public demands from President Donald Trump and called the session himself.
Trump has said that he believes Republicans can pick up as many as 20 U.S. House seats in this year’s midterms through last-minute redistricting efforts.
S.C. House Democrats denounced the “rigged” process that led to Wednesday morning’s vote, particularly after Republicans voted Tuesday to limit amendments and debate on the new maps. Prior to the rules change, Democrats had filed more than 600 amendments in an effort to slow the bill’s momentum.
“Never before in my 28 years up here have I seen us cheat and rig the game in the middle of the game,” House Democratic Leader Todd Rutherford said of the rules change in a Tuesday press conference. “What they’re doing is stealing an election.”
But concerns over the rules change didn’t stop with Democrats in the S.C. House.
Late May 18, the S.C. League of Women Voters and the ACLU of S.C. filed suit in Richland County Circuit Court, arguing that the House Rules Committee violated the state Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) when it met late Monday after giving public notice of just eight minutes. The groups also said the meeting agenda referred only to a discussion of redistricting — not action on a rules change.
Under FOIA, public bodies are required to give 24 hours’ notice of all meetings, except during emergencies.
Nevertheless, despite that statutory language, Judge Daniel Coble dismissed the suit late Wednesday, finding that the House has unreviewable authority to write its own rules under the state constitution.
Opponents of the legislation told Statehouse Report to expect more lawsuits in the days ahead.
“We as a party will absolutely be fighting this in court,” South Carolina Democratic Party Chair Christale Spain said in a May 14 interview. “Absolutely.”
Senate rules a challenge for supporters
Looking ahead, supporters and opponents agree that the greatest threat now facing the bill is a Senate rulebook that’s designed to slow down legislation and give members a meaningful chance to debate and deliberate.
That slower Senate pace has been on display since the bill arrived in the upper chamber Wednesday, when it spent a full day in committee rather than coming to the floor immediately, as it had in the House.
At the hearing, senators heard from state elections director Conway Belangia, who testified that a special congressional primary election in August would cost taxpayers between $5 million and $6 million, while creating a chaotic process for voters and election officials.
Also slowing the process are the 100 amendments Democratic senators have said they plan to file — a delaying tactic that Republicans can only cut short with a three-fifths vote after two full days of debate.
In fact, Democrats say that the only way Republicans can be certain of passing the bill before the start of in-person early voting next Tuesday is with a two-thirds supermajority vote to change the rules, as GOP members did in the House.
But with five Republican senators on record opposing the process, supporters would appear to be two votes shy of the required 31 votes.
“We think we can kill this in the Senate,” one opponent told Statehouse Report. “But definitely get your popcorn.”
- Jack O’Toole is Statehouse bureau chief for Statehouse Report and the Charleston City Paper.
- Have a comment? Send to: feedback@statehousereport.com
S.C.’s Colbert offers final ‘Late Show’ good night
Staff reports | Charleston native Stephen Colbert ended his run as host of CBS’s “Late Show” last night with special guests like Jon Stewart, Elvis Costello and Paul McCartney — and some affectionate ribbing of the state he continues to call home.
Noting that the National Marine Mammal Network has erected billboards across the state in recent days offering him a job, Colbert said it was “flattering to be considered” and cracked: “It’s one of the only billboards in South Carolina that doesn’t say, ‘Repent now — the Bible is real. Dial 1-800-Hell4U. Cracker Barrel in 2 exits.’”
Over the show’s final month, Colbert has said a long goodbye with a bevy of famous guests.
For example, he and retired late-night host David Letterman threw furniture and melons off of the top of the theater where the show is taped. Musician David Byrne performed “Burning Down the House” on Tuesday with Colbert. Rocker Bruce Springsteen sang a song Wednesday. And last week, former President Barack Obama shared laughs with Colbert, 62, who attended Porter-Gaud in Charleston.
But it was McCartney — the “perfect last guest,” as the longtime host called him — who played Colbert out with a celebrity sing-along of the Beatles classic “Hello, Goodbye.”
Critics say the highly-rated show’s final curtain, which CBS said was cancelled for financial reasons and not due to President Trump’s public complaints about Colbert, marks the end of an era.
“Colbert presided over an era when political TV comedy could take a side and still succeed. Or actually, two eras, which almost perfectly coincided with his two shows: one that parodied politics, one made in a time when politics became a parody of itself,” wrote television critic James Poniewozik in The New York Times.
But on the host’s final night, the show’s sharp-edged political humor turned gentler and more personal, as when McCartney presented Colbert with a framed, autographed photo of The Beatles playing the same stage in 1964.
“Wow,” Colbert said, pretending to read aloud. “To Stephen — You’re better than The Beatles. Paul McCartney.”
In other recent news
ELECTIONS: What to know about early voting next week What to know about early voting next week. Eligible voters could head to the polls as soon as May 26. One Senate seat and all seven U.S. House seats are currently up for election, although it is unclear whether people will be allowed to vote in congressional races. The state’s constitutional offices, including governor, also are on the ballot.
- Kimbrell’s unpaid tax bills aren’t actually his, updated records indicate
- 1st District Democratic candidates debate redistricting as early voting begins
McMaster signs expanded Heritage Act after years of debate over monument protection. Gov. Henry McMaster signed a strengthened version of the Heritage Act, prohibiting nearly all monuments in the state from being altered or removed.
New S.C. law regulates bathroom usage in schools. Under House Bill 4756, or the South Carolina Student Physical Privacy Act, public school and university students are required to use bathrooms and locker rooms based on their sex assigned at birth.
S.C. DPH’s temporary director faces backlash from lawmakers. After Republicans celebrated the exit of the director of the state’s Department of Public Health, they are now targeting his announced temporary successor, Dr. Brannon Traxler, who they equally see as too liberal and lenient.
S.C. designates day for emergency responders killed in line of duty. Monday, June 1, will be Gold Shield Day, recognizing police officers, firefighters and paramedics and the families they leave behind.
SCDNR to conduct boat inspections on Memorial Day. The department and the Coast Guard said they will be out this weekend on more patrols as waterways become more crowded with boaters.
NextEra Energy plans to buy Dominion Energy. With demand for power exploding due to AI data centers, Florida-based energy giant NextEra is purchasing Virginia’s Dominion Energy, which serves almost one million customers in S.C.
On “redistricting”
Award-winning cartoonist Robert Ariail has a special knack for poking a little fun in just the right way. This week, he takes a swipe at the legislature’s unprecedented mid-decade redistricting that some call the most irresponsible governing they’ve ever seen.
- Love this week’s cartoon or hate it? Did he go too far, or not far enough? Send your thoughts to feedback@statehousereport.com.
Gather stories to get through emotional times
Commentary by Andy Brack | As the Tahoe pulled around the cloverleaf from Interstate 26 to Interstate 20 last Saturday, a dazzling dawn broke with feathers of pink and orange sifting through a dark sky turning blue.
It made me sad. I realized then that my father, longtime Georgia newspaperman Elliott Brack, would never see the beauty of another dawn. He died suddenly and peacefully at home the evening before. At 90, he lived a good, full life, packing in enough joy, success and engagement with people to fill two regular lives.
Still, he was gone, a larger-than-life presence whose energy comforted and inspired many. The dawn made me feel the absence. No more stories. No more infectious laughter, discussions about business, politics, people and the everyday neat stuff that a father tells a son or vice versa.
Within moments, a text arrived from a friend checking on me and encouraging me to stay strong for family as I sped toward Atlanta to be with my mother and sister. I lamented about the sunrise, only to be told, “He will be the sunrise.”
That really helped. And from now on, the soft light of the breaking day will remind me of my father and a life lived large and well.
Elliott Earl Brack was born on Halloween in 1935 on a small tenant farm outside of Allentown, Ga., about 30 miles south of Macon. His father grew cotton and later milled corn, before moving to Macon around 1940 to take a job driving a bus, which he did for more than 30 years. His mother split her time between keeping house and working at a Macon department store.
Dad got into newspapers early, delivering early morning routes for the Macon Telegraph to have pocket money and the cream-filled pastries that he loved. He attended Macon schools and college at the city’s hometown university, Mercer. After marrying his college sweetheart, he worked as a reporter briefly before serving three years in Germany in the U.S. Army as a Quartermaster Corps officer. One day in Germany, a soldier named Elvis Presley showed up in his commissary.
After earning a graduate degree in journalism from the University of Iowa, dad bought half of a weekly newspaper in Jesup, Ga., thanks to help from his widowed mother-in-law. After 12 years and lots of state and national awards, he taught at the University of Georgia, only to be lured to run a suburban daily in Gwinnett County in the mid-1970s. Later he ran the Gwinnett operation for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, retiring in 2000 as associate publisher. Then in a tip of the hat to the Internet age, we worked to start an online publication, GwinnettForum.com, that kept him busy until a couple of weeks ago.
Through the years, he told stories, writing thousands of columns and editorials. Over 62 years, he published at least 4.5 million words of stories, history, political observations, community insights and more.
Dad, in fact, once told me everyone had a story – until he pulled up beside a guy on a road in the 1980s and started talking with him, only to find the guy was pretty dull. I remember him complaining a bit – I think at a family supper – until he realized with some prompting that the guy’s story was that he didn’t really have much of a story.
Stories connect us in ways that provide comfort and meaning. We learn from them. We understand people better through them. When a younger sister died two years ago, stories from dozens of friends about her vivacious life provided an unexpected catharsis.
The same is happening now that my father has passed. Tributes are pouring in from friends and colleagues who recount how he served as a mentor, an inspiration, a leader at the right time, an advisor.
We’ll miss Dad’s energy. He’s leaving a void in our family and his beloved Gwinnett County. But we’ve got lots of stories for which we’re thankful.
Some unsolicited advice: Reach out today to someone special in your life and find out stories that will continue to keep you going when they’re gone. You’ll be happy that you did.
Elliott E. Brack, 1935-2026. Rest in peace.
Andy Brack is editor and publisher of the Charleston City Paper and Statehouse Report. Have a comment? Send to: feedback@statehousereport.com.
Beasley: S.C. deserves better than partisan redistricting games
By former Gov. David Beasley
MAY 21, 2026 | There are moments in public life when the noise of partisan politics drowns out something that every voter understands and respects: that a democracy only works when the people’s voice is protected.
What is unfolding right now in South Carolina and other states across the country with the effort to redraw congressional district lines is one of those noisy moments. And the people of this state deserve to hear plainly that this is not acceptable.
Leaders come and go, but the process by which they are selected is sacred in our democracy and should never be exploited for short-term political gain. The current fight in the legislature cannot be about U.S. Rep. Jim Clyburn or President Donald Trump but respecting the peoples’ voice.
Reapportionment is not a new concept in American democracy. It has a long history, a defined process and clear standards that exist for good reasons. Communities must be respected. Geographic integrity must be maintained. And above all, the voting rights of citizens must be protected. That process has served this country well when it has been followed faithfully. When it has been twisted into a tool of partisan advantage, it has damaged public trust and left communities without the representation they are owed.
What is being proposed in our state is not reapportionment done in good faith. It is designed to game the system – to engineer an outcome that serves those in power rather than the citizens who put them there. That distinction matters enormously. The question is simple: are these lines being drawn to serve the people or to entrench the powerful? The answer, in this case, is not hard to see.
Congressman Jim Clyburn has spent his career in public service fighting for the people of South Carolina who have too often been left behind – working families, rural communities and Black South Carolinians whose political representation was denied for far too long in this state. He is one of the most consequential figures this state has produced, respected on both sides of the aisle. Jim Clyburn doesn’t own that House seat but deserves a fair chance to make his case to the people for re-election without a predetermined, gerrymandered electorate.
South Carolina has faced these crossroads before. When I called for the Confederate battle flag to come down from the Statehouse dome, it was not a popular decision. The political costs were real. But ultimately the people of South Carolina and their elected representatives recognized that some decisions are bigger than the next election. Equal dignity and equal representation are not partisan issues. They are foundational ones, endowed by our Creator, and they are worth losing office over. I can say that from firsthand experience. The South Carolinians who rallied behind the decision to bring our communities together, Black and White alike, made our State better.
The same test is now before South Carolina’s leaders. The question is not whether taking the right stand will be costly. It very well may be. The question is whether they are willing to do what is right for the people or what is politically expedient for their party.
The people of South Carolina are not sitting around waiting for their elected officials to draw the perfect district map. They are worried about paying their bills, about whether their children’s schools are preparing them for a changing economy, about access to health care and about the security of jobs in their communities. Those are the fights worth having. Those are the issues that should consume the attention and energy of anyone who holds public office. A protracted partisan battle over redistricting is a failure of the most basic responsibility of governance.
This is not a South Carolina problem alone. It is already spreading across the country. State after state has watched partisan leaders redraw maps not to reflect their communities, but to entrench their own power. What is happening here is part of that pattern, and every time it goes unchallenged, it becomes easier to justify the next time. The communities most at risk are always the same ones whose political voice was hardest won and remains most vulnerable. The damage to democratic representation does not stay contained to one state or one election cycle. It compounds, and it normalizes, until the exception becomes the rule.
South Carolina has come too far through too much shared struggle and too much hard-won progress to allow itself to become a model for disenfranchisement. The voters of this state, and the voters of this country, deserve leaders who are focused on solving real problems rather than manipulating maps. They deserve a process that protects representation rather than undermining it.
Like most people in South Carolina and America, I am not first a person of a party, but a citizen of my state and country I love dearly. We are children of God who are asked to love neighbors as our equal and this proposed action violates that commandment and divides our state after so much hard-fought progress has been made.
I want to say something to my brothers and sisters in the South Carolina House and Senate. I have so much respect for the difficult tasks that you face from day to day but this is not the fight that advances our state and country. The right path forward is not the easy one. It rarely is. It is time for the leaders of this state to make the right decision in the lasting interest of its citizens.
Leaders do come and go but the electoral process endures. South Carolina, let’s not set bad precedents, that will damage our democracy for decades to come. If we do, we are all losers.
David Beasley of Society Hill is a former governor of South Carolina.
River scene
Here’s a beautiful river scene somewhere in South Carolina. What makes it special, what is it and where is it? Send your best guess – plus hometown and name – to: feedback@statehousereport.com.
Last week’s photo, “Isn’t it groovy?” shows Clinton’s municipal center on North Broad Street. Built in 1969 originally as a bank, Allan Peel of San Antonio, Texas, tells us that the building is “a classic example of New Formalism architecture, a style defined by its symmetric brick massing, smooth cast stone surfaces and prominent, repetitive floor-to-ceiling arches framing recessed glass entryways.”
Two other longtime sleuths – George Graf of Palmyra, Va., and Jay Altman of Columbia – identified it. What happened to the rest of y’all?
- SHARE: If you have a Mystery Photo to share, please send it to us – and make sure you tell us what it is!
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Statehouse Report, founded in 2001 as a weekly legislative forecast that informs readers about what is going to happen in South Carolina politics and policy, is provided by email to you at no charge every Friday.
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