Politics
South Carolina’s first-in-the-nation primary status looks fraught as Dems sour on Biden
COLUMBIA, SOUTH CAROLINA — Democrats here took a vital first step in delivering Joe Biden the presidency five years ago. Now, they’re hoping his tarnished legacy won’t jeopardize their future as an early primary state.
Already, there are hints some Democrats will revert to New Hampshire holding the party’s initial primary contest, while progressives want to see labor-heavy Nevada take the lead. And there’s even talk of friendlier southern states, like Georgia or North Carolina, leapfrogging South Carolina.
“The unfortunate part is, Democrats are saying that, and they think that [South Carolina leading] is a bad part of Biden’s legacy,” said Bre Booker-Maxwell, a national committeewoman, Saturday on the sidelines of the state party’s convention.
She questioned the rationale of such a decision, before answering herself. “The fact that the man ran the second time, and he probably shouldn’t have run?” she asked skeptically. “Some people just need to get over themselves and whatever issues they have with Joe Biden.”
Attempts to move past Biden and the bad aftertaste of 2024 got underway this weekend as state party insiders hosted a pair of out-of-state governors with obvious, but still publicly undeclared, sights on the 2028 nomination.
Govs. Wes Moore of Maryland and Tim Walz of Minnesota took turns gracing the outdoor stage while onlookers feasted on whiting filet on white bread, at the World Famous Fish Fry, an annual tradition hosted by the state’s Democratic kingmaker, Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.).
Walz, the first to greet the crowd, spoke of the missteps from the last cycle and Democrats needing to expand their reach beyond a handful of swing states.
“I went to the same seven damn states over and over and over,” Walz said. “People are pissed off in South Carolina, they’re pissed off in Texas, they’re pissed off in Indiana. … We need to change the attitude, compete in every district, compete for every school board seat.”
Moore, who earlier Friday delivered the keynote address at the state party’s Blue Palmetto Dinner, drew cheers from the mostly Black attendees of the fish fry when he said “we come from a resilient culture” and encouraged them not to run in the face of challenge. He then pivoted to Trump and the havoc his so-called big beautiful bill would create if passed, which Moore suggested would push tens of thousands of kids into poverty while enriching the president’s billionaire buddies.
Once speeches wrapped, several in the crowd broke into line dance while South Carolina crooner 803 Fresh’s campaign anthem “Boots on the Ground” blared over loudspeakers.
It was not the rip-roaring affair of 2019 when a cavalcade of 21 presidential candidates — including Biden — wooed attendees with stump speeches. Friday night’s gathering at the EdVenture Children’s Museum was held as many Democrats are still grappling with the pain of widespread electoral defeats.
Biden’s return to the national spotlight — through negative coverage detailing how those in his inner circle shielded the president’s deteriorating condition from the outside world — has only resurfaced some long-held misgivings about his legacy.
“All this talk about President Biden and what should have and what could have, what might have, is a bunch of bullshit,” said Trav Robertson, a longtime Democratic operative and former chair of the state party. “We can peck that to death if you want to, but that is in the past. South Carolina represents going into the future.”
South Carolina, a state where Black Democrats make up a substantial portion of primary voters, played a pivotal role resurrecting Biden’s moribund campaign. When Clyburn threw his support behind Biden ahead of the South Carolina primary in 2020, it vaulted him to the nomination and later, the presidency. In return, Biden pressured the Democratic Party to upend its traditional nomination calendar by moving the state to the lead-off position.
But that electoral situation was tenuous. By running for reelection, Biden sapped energy out of the 2024 primary. Now, party officials are bracing for its status as the kickoff state to be ripped away.
“I think it would be a mistake to act like South Carolina’s place [at the top] is just because of Biden, when this has been a conversation we’ve been having for 20 years,” said Nick Sottile, an attorney and executive director of the South Carolina House Democrats.
Like nearly every Democrat in the state, he points out the benefits of South Carolina are vast. In addition to paying homage to a vital Democratic voting bloc, the small state with relatively cheap media markets won’t bankrupt campaigns, which can hit upstate, midlands and the coast — a mix of urban, suburban and rural areas — all on a single tank of gas. Then there’s the robust defense of South Carolina primary voters’ history of picking presidents — Bill Clinton in 1992, Barack Obama in 2008 and Biden in 2020 — particularly in contrast to New Hampshire and Iowa.
“We get it right, and it’s a proven track record,” Sottile added. “It’s not one election and one candidate that we’re talking about.”
That feeling is not shared by many outside the state.
A longtime member of the DNC’s committee that helps determine the presidential primary order granted anonymity to discuss informal discussions suggested South Carolina’s current spot atop the calendar will undoubtedly come under scrutiny in the coming months.
“Clearly South Carolina members will want to continue to be first in the calendar for obvious reasons,” the person said. “I think that no one else is going to feel any kind of obligation to keep South Carolina at the top of the calendar — because Biden is gone.”
Biden may have unintentionally shattered South Carolina’s standing next cycle, which only adds to a sense of betrayal over his role in ushering in another Trump presidency.
“There are people who are just mad as hell about everything that happened in 2024,” said Sam Skardon of Charleston.
He admits he was one of the few in the state party who believed Biden’s promise to be a “bridge” candidate to the next generation. He took the job as chair of the Charleston County Democrats in March 2023 hoping to preside over a robust primary. A month later, Biden announced his reelection bid.
“There’s a special connection here that’s a deeper attachment, I think, than most states’ Democratic Parties have to President Biden, probably up there with Delaware for thinking of him as our own,” Skardon added. “But yeah, then there is additional anger, I think, at Biden for … not not letting us put our best foot forward.”
Some believe Biden is simply too convenient a scapegoat for the party’s broader problems. Backpedaling on giving Black voters more of a say in picking the party’s nominee could erode trust in a bloc that’s already drifting away from the party.
“It is a slap in the face … to Black Americans, where people are questioning Joe Biden at this point,” said Antjuan Seawright, a Democratic strategist who resumed his role as emcee of the fish fry. “It was Joe Biden who had the steel spine, the guts and the courage to declare that Black Americans’ voices should be heard first in the presidential preference process.”
But Seawright also shared concerns that too many voters here view Democrats as out of touch.
“I think trust was a part of the formula for Trump’s success in the last election cycle,” Seawright added. “You had some people who, in my opinion, did not necessarily vote for Donald Trump, they voted against the Democratic brand.”
At the Palmetto Dinner, Jaime Harrison, the chair emeritus of the Democratic National Committee and Orangeburg, South Carolina, native revved up the crowd by putting a positive spin on the party’s standing in state since Biden left the stage.
“We are more organized, we are more energized, and we are more focused than ever before,” he said, heaping praise on the state’s party chair Christale Spain who was elected to a second term on Saturday. “I am going to be on record right now to the South Carolina Republican Party, 2026 is going to be a reckoning.”
Amanda Loveday, a Democratic strategist based in Columbia who worked on Biden’s 2020 presidential campaign, is another South Carolina defender. But she is less optimistic given South Carolina’s Democrats, who have long been locked out of power in the state, suffered setbacks last cycle.
“We lost [state] Senators and House members that we have absolutely no business losing,” Loveday said, which included two prominent Black lawmakers including state Sen. Gerald Malloy and state Rep. Joseph Jefferson.
Republicans flipped four state Senate seats last cycle, leaving just 12 Democrats in the chamber. And in the presidential election, Trump’s victory was never in doubt, but he increased his margin by 6 percentage points over 2020.
All this is fueling speculation that South Carolina’s neighbors — North Carolina and Georgia — which have notched statewide wins for Democrats in recent cycles, have better arguments to hurdle South Carolina in the primary calendar.
AI safety groups aren’t buying OpenAI CEO Sam Altman’s shifting stance on political spending in the midterms.
They’re wary of his concession that campaign cash from industry-aligned groups, like the OpenAI-aligned Leading the Future super PAC, may have inadvertently backfired. Instead, they’re pushing for stronger commitments to downsize the flood of money — and for candidates to reject any support from pro-AI groups.
“I won’t believe that they are actually changing their strategy, or their goals I should say, unless and until they do,” said Democratic New York assemblymember Alex Bores, who emerged as a key voice among AI regulation advocates after Leading the Future and other groups spent $8 million to tank his House campaign. He launched a $30 million effort to unify Democrats on AI policy last month.
Altman’s stark acknowledgement to Blue Light News follows a New York Times report that revealed OpenAI President Greg Brockman backed out of injecting more cash into Leading the Future earlier this summer, calling the super PAC’s efforts a “distraction” from the company’s mission. The pause is notable as Americans grow increasingly anxious about the risks the technology poses, and lawmakers scramble to figure out how to approach the emerging tech.
Still, some critics are not taking Altman’s concession or Brockman’s pullback as a sign of a fundamental change in the industry’s campaign strategy — at least not yet.
“What I read it as is they are no longer — or Greg Brockman in particular is not — going to fund Leading the Future,” said Bores. “Does that mean that the industry is not going to spend hundreds of millions of dollars trying to influence policy and get benefits on their way? No.”
Bores insisted that candidates should think twice before accepting financial support from Leading the Future specifically: “An elected official of either party taking money from Leading the Future should be viewed with incredible suspect.”
Guardrails Alliance political director Charlie Blaettler agreed, saying OpenAI leadership deciding to distance themselves from Leading the Future should be the final straw for Democrats backed by the group.
“If it’s too toxic for Sam Altman and Greg Brockman, why are Democrats still taking their money?” he said.
Leading the Future and rival super PAC network Public First — which advocates for AI regulation and is largely funded by OpenAI competitor Anthropic — together spent over $70 million through super PACs this cycle, according to FEC data.
Other pro-regulation advocates have jumped in with their own political spending, with groups like the Guardrails Alliance — a nonprofit and super PAC that launched in June — raising $5 million and spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to support Bores. Some of Guardrails Alliance’s money came from OpenAI employees pushing back against Leading the Future, which is funded in large part by OpenAI president Brockman, his wife Anna, early OpenAI investors Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz, and their venture capital firm a16z. They have contributed a combined $75 million to Leading the Future.
Leading the Future and a16z declined to comment.
Some Democrats who were backed in their primaries by Leading the Future — like Reps. Ritchie Torres and Joe Morelle of New York and Jared Moskowitz of Florida — declined to say whether they would disavow the Leading the Future cash that boosted them in their races.
“An outside AI PAC spent money in the 4th district during the primary, but they didn’t donate directly to my campaign,” Rep. Val Hoyle (D-Ore.), who was backed by a nearly $300,000 investment from Leading the Future, said in a statement to Blue Light News.
She did not address whether she would disavow the group and its spending: “I’ve been working with labor leaders and advocates to put workers first when it comes to AI. We need clear federal guardrails to protect workers, safeguard our planet, prevent utility rate spikes and give consumers a voice.”
Even if candidates decide to further distance themselves from the industry’s spending, some pro-guardrails advocates said the onus still lies with figures like Altman to put a stop to — or significantly decrease — the influx of money altogether.
“[Altman was] basically saying, ‘These are the rules of the game, and I can’t really change them, and it’s not in my job description,’” said Brendan Steinhauser, who leads AI safety group The Alliance for Secure AI Action. “Of course he’s saying that, but they could do a unilateral disarmament or encourage the other labs to stop giving, and maybe it’d be just like pacing the frontier — maybe people could pace political giving.”
Former Democratic Rep. Brad Carson, who co-founded Public First, said he would be open to engaging in talks with Leading the Future about pacing or scaling back the industry’s political spending — but only if so-called AI “accelerationists” are serious about backing off. He called out Andreessen and Horowitz who have emerged as the biggest known spenders in this year’s midterm elections and were early investors in OpenAI.
“As long as these accelerationists have a desire to spend tens and tens, if not hundreds of millions of dollars, there is probably a need for a Public First,” said Carson, who also leads the nonprofit group Americans for Responsible Innovation. “So even if Brockman drops out, Andreessen and Horowitz can just drop another 50 million if they felt like it, and I wouldn’t want to be disarmed against that.”
Brendan Bordelon contributed to this report.
Former President Barack Obama will campaign in Detroit with Michigan Democrats later this month, giving the party a high-profile boost ahead of the start of the state’s early voting period.
Obama is set to join Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed, gubernatorial nominee Jocelyn Benson and other candidates on Oct. 24, the state party announced Monday.
“It is my honor and privilege to announce that President @BarackObama is joining us on the trail in Detroit on Saturday, October 24,” El-Sayed wrote on social media. “Get. Ready.”
The event comes 10 days before Election Day, with Democrats defending an open Senate seat and the governor’s office.
El-Sayed faces Republican former Rep. Mike Rogers in the race to succeed retiring Democratic Sen. Gary Peters. Benson, Michigan’s secretary of state, faces Republican Rep. John James in the open governor’s race.
Since leaving the White House, Obama has remained one of the party’s most popular figures, both nationally and among the party grassroots. He has campaigned in past cycles, but he’s made few public stops on the trail this year.
He previously campaigned in Texas with Democratic Senate nominee James Talarico and gubernatorial nominee Gina Hinojosa, and appeared in a campaign ad with Iowa Senate nominee Josh Turek.
The former president is also set to headline a Washington-area fundraiser Wednesday for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, his first with the party’s Senate campaign arm this election cycle.
Ken Paxton is less than a month out from the conclusion of a D.C.-outsider campaign for a Texas U.S. Senate seat that he privately admitted is being run by Washington.
“I’ve never been in a race where I felt less control over the campaign and, like, what issues are going to matter because it’s all coming — you know — from D.C.,” Paxton said during a small fundraising event last month, according to an audio recording obtained by Blue Light News from a person in the room who does not support Paxton, and verified by another attendee.
“I don’t control message or what we’re doing.”
The lunch, hosted Sept. 24 in Washington by Chris Brinson and Susan Hirschmann of the D.C.-based lobbying firm Williams & Jensen, was attended by about a dozen people including Scott Kopple, VP of government relations at defense contractor BWXT.
“Texas is a big state, and some of these issues obviously resonate with real — I’ll call real people — you know, like back home,” Kopple, who did not respond to a request for comment, said to some chuckles in the room. “I know you need money to get the message out and stuff, but how does this stuff translate?”
Paxton replied saying: “I miss the days when I could go to, get around with all the people. But we have 32 million people, so let’s just say for the next 40 days I’m in front of 1,000 people a day — which I’m not — and that’s 40,000 people. Ten to 10.4 million people are gonna vote.”
“But then it comes down to your messaging,” he continued, “which in a federal race comes from other people a lot of times, which you don’t control.”
One attendee granted anonymity to discuss the private meeting said that Paxton never explicitly said he was referring to Trump’s team controlling his campaign, but “everybody knew what he was talking about.” The person said Paxton’s comments came amid a broader discussion about the national political environment.
“I don’t have ability to change anything,” Paxton went on. “So I have to live with whatever I’ve got. So it is a challenge.”
Paxton campaign adviser Nick Maddux said, “Campaigns don’t coordinate with super PACS and that’s obviously what AG Paxton was referring to,” in a statement to Blue Light News. “AG Paxton is thankful for the support and knows how important Texas is to keeping the majority which is why he’s on the ground every day talking to Texas, raising money, and taking his message directly to the people including with his statewide television buy that started over this past weekend.”
Neither Hirschmann nor Brinson responded to a request for comment.
In an audio recording of the same meeting obtained by The New York Times, Paxton told attendees the midterm convention hosted by Trump in Texas last month “dropped our numbers. Everybody’s numbers dropped. Right now, yeah, not good.” Maddux described the article as “manipulated nonsense.” Playbook hasn’t heard the contents of the rest of the hourlong meeting.
The most recent New York Times/Siena poll has Paxton running 6 points behind Democratic challenger James Talarico.
The private comments follow a bitter primary campaign waged against Republican incumbent John Cornyn, whom Paxton framed as a “Washington insider” and “RINO” while publicly aligning himself with Trump.
“His money is coming from the D.C. establishment,” Paxton said of Cornyn while campaigning in Texas before the primary, the AP reported. “That’s how they always try to convince us from Washington with their money that we should select their person. Well, I’m not their person and I’m never going to be their person.”
Paxton maintains a cash advantage heading into November and announced a $20 million ad buy last month. The Senate Leadership Fund, a top GOP super political action committee closely aligned with Senate Majority Leader John Thune, pledged millions to back Paxton earlier in September.
Like this content? Consider signing up for Blue Light News’s Playbook newsletter.
-
Politics2 years agoFormer ‘Squad’ members launching ‘Bowman and Bush’ YouTube show
-
Uncategorized2 years ago
Bob Good to step down as Freedom Caucus chair this week
-
The Josh Fourrier Show2 years agoDOOMSDAY: Trump won, now what?
-
The Dictatorship2 years agoPete Hegseth’s tenure at the Pentagon goes from bad to worse
-
Politics2 years agoFormer Kentucky AG Daniel Cameron launches Senate bid
-
The Dictatorship2 years agoLuigi Mangione acknowledges public support in first official statement since arrest
-
Politics2 years agoBlue Light News’s Editorial Director Ryan Hutchins speaks at Blue Light News’s 2025 Governors Summit
-
The Dictatorship1 year agoMike Johnson sums up the GOP’s arrogant position on military occupation with two words