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Former Member, Constitutional Laws Subcommittee, South Carolina State House of Representatives
Former Chair, Educational and Cultural Subcommittee, South Carolina State House of Representatives
Former First Vice Chair, Judiciary Committee, South Carolina State House of Representatives
Former Member, Legislative Oversight Committee, South Carolina State House of Representatives
Former Member, Constitutional Laws Subcommittee, South Carolina State House of Representatives
Former Chair, Educational and Cultural Subcommittee, South Carolina State House of Representatives
Former First Vice Chair, Judiciary Committee, South Carolina State House of Representatives
Former Member, Legislative Oversight Committee, South Carolina State House of Representatives
— Father's Name:
— Mother's Name:
1. Abortions should always be illegal.
- No Answer
2. Abortions should always be legal.
- No Answer
3. Abortions should be legal only within the first trimester of pregnancy.
- X
4. Abortions should be legal when the pregnancy resulted from incest or rape.
- X
5. Abortions should be legal when the life of the woman is endangered.
- X
6. Prohibit public funding of abortions and of organizations that advocate or perform abortions.
- No Answer
7. Other or expanded principles
- No Answer
1. Education (higher)
- Greatly Increase
2. Education (K-12)
- Greatly Increase
3. Environment
- Greatly Increase
4. Health care
- Greatly Increase
5. Law enforcement
- Greatly Increase
6. Transportation and highway infrastructure
- Greatly Increase
7. Welfare
- Maintain Status
8. Other or expanded categories
- No Answer
1. Alcohol taxes
- Maintain Status
2. Capital gains taxes
- Maintain Status
3. Cigarette taxes
- Greatly Increase
4. Corporate taxes
- Maintain Status
5. Gasoline taxes
- Maintain Status
6. Income taxes (incomes below $75,000)
- Maintain Status
7. Income taxes (incomes above $75,000)
- Maintain Status
8. Inheritance taxes
- Eliminate
9. Property taxes
- Eliminate
10. Sales taxes
- No Answer
11. Vehicle taxes
- Eliminate
12. Other or expanded categories
- No Answer
13. Should Internet sales be taxed?
- No
14. Do you support a revenue-dependent income tax reduction in South Carolina?
- No
15. Do you support allowing the Governor to appoint constitutional officers rather than having voters elect them?
- Undecided
16. Other or expanded principles
- No Answer
1. Do you support the current limit of two consecutive four-year terms for South Carolina governors?
- Yes
2. Do you support limiting the number of terms for South Carolina state senators and representatives?
- No
1. Individual
- Yes
2. PAC
- Yes
3. Corporate
- Yes
4. Political Parties
- Yes
5. Do you support requiring full and timely disclosure of campaign finance information?
- Yes
6. Do you support imposing spending limits on state level political campaigns?
- Undecided
7. Do you support adopting statewide standards for counting, verifying, and ensuring accuracy of votes?
- Yes
8. Do you support prohibiting the reporting of media exit polling results until all polling locations in South Carolina are closed?
- Yes
9. Should South Carolina recognize civil unions between same-sex couples?
- Yes
10. Should South Carolina restrict marriage to a union only between a man and a woman?
- Yes
11. Other or expanded principles
- No Answer
1. Increase state funds for construction of state prisons and for hiring of additional prison staff.
- X
2. Support the death penalty in South Carolina.
- X
3. Support programs to provide prison inmates with vocational and job-related skills and job-placement assistance when released.
- X
4. End parole for repeat violent offenders.
- X
5. Implement penalties other than incarceration for certain non-violent offenders.
- X
6. Decriminalize the possession of small amounts of marijuana.
- No Answer
7. Strengthen penalties and sentences for drug-related crimes.
- X
8. Minors accused of a violent crime should be prosecuted as adults.
- No Answer
9. Increase state funding for community centers and other social agencies in areas with at-risk youth.
- X
10. Increase funding for state and local emergency agencies to prevent and to respond to terrorist attacks.
- X
11. Allow police to ticket motorists for not wearing their safety belts, even if they have committed no other traffic violation.
- X
12. Other or expanded principles
- No Answer
1. Support national standards and testing of public school students.
- X
2. Provide parents with state-funded vouchers to send their children to any public school.
- No Answer
3. Provide parents with state-funded vouchers to send their children to any private or religious school.
- No Answer
4. Allow families making less than $75,000 annually to receive an education tax credit on property or income taxes to use toward private education, home schooling, or the cost of transferring a child to another school district.
- No Answer
5. Establish a statewide charter school district through which charter schools in South Carolina would be authorized and funded.
- No Answer
6. Increase state funds for school capital improvements (e.g. buildings and infrastructure).
- X
7. Increase state funds for hiring additional teachers.
- X
8. Support teacher testing and reward with merit pay.
- No Answer
9. Endorse voluntary prayer in public schools.
- X
10. Require public schools to administer high school exit exams.
- X
11. Provide state funding to increase teacher salaries.
- X
12. Increase funding for Head Start programs.
- X
13. Provide state funding for tax incentives and financial aid to help make college more affordable.
- X
14. Support sexual education programs that include information on abstinence, contraceptives, and HIV/STD prevention methods.
- X
15. Support abstinence-only sexual education programs.
- X
16. Other or expanded principles
- No Answer
1. Increase funding for state job-training programs that re-train displaced workers and teach skills needed in today's job market.
- X
2. Reduce state government regulations on the private sector in order to encourage investment and economic expansion.
- X
3. Provide low interest loans and tax credits for starting, expanding, or relocating businesses.
- X
4. Provide tax credits for businesses that provide child care for children in low-income working families.
- X
5. Increase state funds to provide child care for children in low-income working families.
- X
6. Include sexual orientation in South Carolina's anti-discrimination laws.
- X
7. Increase the state minimum wage.
- No Answer
8. Other or expanded principles
- No Answer
1. Public employment
- Yes
2. State college and university admissions
- Yes
3. State contracting
- Yes
4. Other or expanded principles
- No Answer
1. Promote increased use of alternative fuel technology.
- X
2. Support increased production of traditional domestic energy sources (e.g. coal, natural gas, and oil).
- No Answer
3. Use state funds to clean up former industrial and commercial sites that are contaminated, unused, or abandoned.
- X
4. Support increased funding for open space preservation. (e.g. Conservation Bank)
- X
5. Enact environmental regulations even if they are stricter than federal law.
- X
6. Other or expanded principles
- No Answer
1. Maintain and strengthen the enforcement of existing state restrictions on the purchase and possession of guns.
- X
2. Ease state restrictions on the purchase and possession of guns.
- No Answer
3. Repeal state restrictions on the purchase and possession of guns.
- No Answer
4. Allow citizens to carry concealed guns.
- X
5. Require manufacturers to provide child-safety locks on guns.
- X
6. Require background checks on gun sales between private citizens at gun shows.
- X
7. Require a license for gun possession in South Carolina.
- No Answer
8. Other or expanded principles
- No Answer
1. Ensure that citizens have access to basic health care through managed care, insurance reforms, or state-funded care where necessary.
- X
2. Transfer more existing Medicaid recipients into managed care programs.
- No Answer
3. Limit the amount of punitive damages that can be awarded in medical malpractice lawsuits.
- No Answer
4. Support patients' right to sue their HMOs.
- X
5. Support patients' right to appeal to an administrative board of specialists when services are denied.
- X
6. Guaranteed medical care to all citizens is not a responsibility of state government.
- No Answer
7. Legalize physician assisted suicide in South Carolina.
- No Answer
8. Allow doctors to prescribe marijuana to their patients for medicinal purposes.
- No Answer
9. Other or expanded principles
- No Answer
1. Support increased work requirements for able-bodied welfare recipients.
- No Answer
2. Increase funding for employment and job training programs for welfare recipients.
- X
3. Increase access to public transportation for welfare recipients who work.
- X
4. Support current limits on benefits given to recipients if they have additional children while on welfare.
- No Answer
5. Redirect welfare funding to faith-based and community-based private organizations.
- No Answer
6. Use federal TANF (Temporary Assistance to Needy Families) funds to extend health and child care subsidies to the working poor.
- X
7. Support marriage promotion programs for welfare recipients.
- No Answer
8. Eliminate government-funded welfare programs.
- No Answer
9. Other or expanded principles
- No Answer
Please explain in a total of 75 words or less, your top two or three priorities if elected. If they require additional funding for implementation, please explain how you would obtain this funding.
- No Answer
Type: resolution Chamber: lower
Type: resolution Chamber: lower
Type: resolution Chamber: lower
By James Smith This campaign for governor can sometimes feel like two separate conversations that don't connect at any point. Our campaign is focused on South Carolina. My running mate, Rep. Mandy Powers Norrell, and I are focused exclusively on real issues facing our citizens here at home. We advocate for a brighter future for our state, one in which no South Carolinian is left behind. The incumbent seems to dwell in a different universe. In his world, all that matters are divisive national litmus-test issues. He recently vetoed millions in health care for the poor simply to deprive a few thousand for a group that his base objects to -- and doesn't even succeed in achieving his stated purpose. To him, it's not about the people or the policy -- it's about the pose. CNBC reported last week that "Poor health care is sapping this state's Southern charm." In the same week, though, Henry McMaster vetoed $16 million in health care for our state's poorest citizens -- in order to posture on an unrelated national issue. He tried backtracking on that Friday, but the incident illustrated how thoughtless he has been with regard to critical policy. As governor, I will understand the impact of my vetoes before I make them. And when the federal government imposes tariffs that threaten thousands of jobs here in South Carolina, McMaster won't stand up against them. We think our approach is the right one: focusing on things that matter to being governor and lieutenant governor. We'd like to just ignore McMaster's polarizing poses. But he makes that hard. That's because the national issues he embraces often have such negative effects on South Carolina. So we have to speak out. Let's look at what's ACTUALLY happening in our state as a result of the national policies that he either embraces or just won't speak out against: * BMW is one of the great pillars of South Carolina manufacturing, providing almost 10,000 excellent jobs in the Upstate. But with the U.S. imposing arbitrary tariffs and other nations retaliating, BMW plans to build more SUVs overseas. And McMaster has done nothing. * BMW is just one of several important Upstate manufacturers that have written to the U.S. Commerce Department expressing deep concern about the harm the tariffs could do to their business, and the jobs they provide. And McMaster has done nothing. * Volvo, which had planned to start building cars near Charleston later this year, is now questioning whether to add those 2,000 high-paying jobs -- because of the tariffs. And McMaster has done nothing. * Two weeks ago, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce said South Carolina would be among the states most harmed by tariffs, as $3 billion of our state's economy depends on international trade. And McMaster has done nothing. * Last week, the South Carolina Chamber of Commerce appealed to our state's congressional delegation to do "whatever it takes to inform the administration about the jobs at risk" in our state. And McMaster has done nothing. * In its annual "Top States for Business" report this past week, CNBC dropped South Carolina to 30th. Our neighbors North Carolina and Georgia both made the top 10. And McMaster has done nothing. And that's just what we've seen in the last few days. The governor has made poor, ill-informed decisions, and in other cases -- such as the job-killing tariffs -- has taken no action at all. His silence on these important issues is deafening. James Smith is a member of the South Carolina House of Representatives and the Democratic nominee for governor.
