Cunningham set to challenge Governor McMaster in 2022
Wed, 04/28/2021 - 9:53am
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Former U.S. Representative Joe Cunningham (D-SC) officially launched his campaign for governor of South Carolina on Monday releasing a 3-minute video, discussing issues ranging from education to infrastructure and health care to voting rights.
“The challenges we face aren’t because of our people, they’re because of our politicians,” said Cunningham in a statement. “Henry McMaster has been a politician longer than I’ve been alive … And after 20 years of trying the same thing, it’s time for something different, something new.”
Cunningham’s priorities as governor will include expanding Medicaid, raising teacher pay and reinvesting in public education, fixing South Carolina’s roads, passing police reform, expanding voting rights, closing the Charleston gun loophole, tackling climate change, passing term limits for legislators, and raising the minimum wage to $12 an hour.
Cunningham said he is also taking a pledge as governor to not raise taxes on South Carolinians.
Cunningham made history in 2018 when he flipped a district that Donald Trump won by 13 points in 2016 and had been held by Republicans for 40 years. That same year, he overperformed the Democratic nominee for governor, James Smith, by 3.5 points in District 1. Smith ultimately won 46% of the vote statewide. In 2020, Cunningham narrowly lost his re-election bid by a single point in a district Donald Trump won by six points.
Cunningham will begin a 46-county tour with a campaign kickoff event in Charleston on Wednesday, April 28, at 6 p.m. at Tradesman Brewing Company at 1647 King St. Extension. He will deliver a speech on his vision for South Carolina. The public and the media are invited to attend the outside event and masks will be required.
Cunningham served South Carolina’s First Congressional District from 2019 to 2021 where he was ranked one of the most independent and effective members of Congress. He currently practices law in Charleston.
For more information about the campaign, go to JoeForSouthCarolina.com.
– Compiled by Boots Gifford, boots@thedanielislandnews.com