Red State Republicans Move To Oust 85-Year-Old Democrat Rep Who Helped Biden Get To White House
'This fight is bigger than one district'
Former President Joe Biden was stumbling long before he took office. He fell behind in the first three Democratic primary elections of 2020, placing fourth, fifth, and second, respectively.
James Clyburn, South Carolina's lone Democratic congressman, is credited with turning things around for the campaign and propping Biden up by delivering him a timely endorsement and South Carolina's delegates.
Now, Biden's political crutch is poised to lose his own footing.
'This fight is a straightforward, fair election versus Democrat manipulation.'
During a heated meeting on Tuesday, lawmakers on the South Carolina House Constitutional Laws Subcommittee discussed legislation that, if successfully passed by both chambers of the legislature and ratified by the governor, would ultimately redraw the Palmetto State's congressional maps and eliminate Clyburn's district.
During the public testimony portion of the meeting, wild-eyed opponents accused Republican lawmakers of engaging in "fascism," killing democracy in the state, disenfranchising black voters, and diluting liberal voting power.
South Carolina Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette, among those who alternatively spoke in support of the legislation at the meeting, stated, "We have both the duty and the opportunity to maximize our conservative stronghold and ensure our people receive the representation they deserve, grounded in faith, freedom, family values, safe communities, and economic prosperity."
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"This fight is a straightforward, fair election versus Democrat manipulation," Evette added.
The subcommittee ultimately signaled support for the legislation in a 3-2 vote that prompted heckles from the peanut gallery.
The full South Carolina House Judiciary Committee subsequently took up the matter.
Ahead of the state lawmakers' meeting, President Donald Trump noted on Truth Social, "I'm watching closely, along with all Republicans across the Country who are counting on their Elected Leaders to use every Legal and Constitutional authority they have to stop the Radical Left Democrats from destroying our Country, including leveling the playing field against their decades of egregious Gerrymandering and Census Rigging."
"South Carolina Republicans: BE BOLD AND COURAGEOUS, just like the Republicans of the Great State of Tennessee were last week!" Trump continued. "Move the U.S. House Primaries to August, leave the rest on the same schedule. Everything will be fine. GET IT DONE!"
Clyburn, now serving his 17th term and seeking re-election, is furious over the prospect of losing power.
In a series of tweets last week, the Democratic congressman complained, "Republicans are trying to break apart South Carolina's 6th District. Not because voters demanded it, but because Donald Trump requested it."
"This fight is bigger than one district," Clyburn continued. "It's about whether our democracy belongs to the people, or to politicians who change the rules when they don't like the results. We cannot let them succeed."
Clyburn was first elected to represent South Carolina's 6th district after its borders were redrawn with the intention of making it a majority-black district.
Republicans are empowered to augment Clyburn's district as the result of the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in Callais, where the high court struck down Louisiana's 2024 congressional map as an unconstitutional racial gerrymander and made clear that redistricting should effectively be color-blind.
Clyburn briefly dropped the alarmist shtick during a recent CNN interview, where he admitted that he could potentially still get re-elected in a district that's not a racial gerrymander.
The 85-year-old Democrat suggested further that other Democratic candidates could benefit from new maps, telling talking head Jake Tapper, "When they finish with the redistricting, there will be the possibilities of at least three Democrats getting elected here in South Carolina to the United States Congress."
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While the criminal case against the man accused of murdering Iryna Zarutska proceeds through the federal court system, one attorney representing the defendant is also running for office — as a Democrat.
On September 25, just over a month after Zarutska was brutally slain on a North Carolina subway, Joshua Snow Kendrick was appointed to be "learned counsel" to the man accused of murdering her: Decarlos Brown Jr. Kendrick was added to the defense team, U.S. Magistrate Judge Susan Rodriguez wrote, because defendants in capital cases have the right to an attorney who is "sufficiently experienced in providing representation in death penalty eligible offenses."
Thus far, Kendrick has released few details about his platform.
The appointment has kept Kendrick busy. He has filed motion and after motion on behalf of Brown, including two motions in January to prevent the release of police bodycam video and other evidence to the media.
Yet Kendrick has still found time to launch a political campaign for the state House of South Carolina. Election records confirm that on March 26, Kendrick filed to run as a Democrat for South Carolina House District 22.
The email address that Kendrick included in his filing is the same email address listed on some of the motions filed in Brown's capital murder case.
Kendrick did not respond to a request for comment from Blaze News.

The deadline to file to run for office in South Carolina this year has already passed, so Kendrick is set to sail through the Democratic primary on June 9 unopposed. But if incumbent state Rep. Paul Wickensimer can prevail in the Republican primary, he will be a formidable opponent for Kendrick come November.
District 22 is located just outside downtown Greenville and is considered solidly Republican. Wickensimer defeated his Democratic opponent by a decisive 60%-39.8% margin in 2024, and a Republican has held the seat since at least 2012, according to Ballotpedia.
Ballotpedia and BallotReady pages for Kendrick list only the 2026 South Carolina House District 22 race, suggesting he has never run for political office until now.
Thus far, Kendrick has released few details about his platform.
His ActBlue donation page reads:
Chip in today to support me for South Carolina House of Representatives. I am running to give you a voice in your government. It's time to stop being ignored by our elected officials.
The website for the South Carolina Democratic Party lists Kendrick as the Democratic candidate for District 22 but otherwise gives no information about him. The party did not respond to a request for comment.
Decarlos Brown was declared mentally incompetent in the state case against him but still faces a federal charge of one count of committing an act causing death on a mass transportation system. If convicted, he could receive the death penalty.
H/T: Matt Van Swol
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