There is ample evidence to suggest that Black and brown voters in South Carolina are losing ground in at least three critical areas due to strategic moves by Republicans at the federal and state levels of government.
Economic Opportunities
This year Black unemployment rose from 6.2% to 7.5%, the highest level since October 2021. Black home-ownership fell to the lowest level in four years, according to an analysis by the real estate brokerage Redfin. The Census Bureau found the median Black household income fell 3.3% last year.
Here in SC at Governor Henry McMaster’s direction the state took dramatic steps in December 2025 to begin dismantling decades-old programs designed to increase participation by women and minority-owned businesses in government contracting.
State Rep. Jermaine Johnson, Democratic candidate for governor from Richland County, noted that the programs targeted by McMaster’s order had previously opened up contracting opportunities for a majority of South Carolinians—in particular women, who represent 51% of the state’s population.
“We all know that a lot of these contracts are male dominated, and we’re going to take opportunities away from women?” he told Statehouse Report on Dec. 4, 2025. “That’s just wrong, especially in a state where women are still being underpaid, and still almost being treated like second-class citizens.”
Also in December 2025 Charleston Mayor William Cogswell and the city council gave approval to an ordinance ending the city’s women and minority contracting program, altering policies at its small business incubator, and changing the names of several departments and committees, removing all references to race.
While Blacks are now at a disadvantage in securing government contracts another blow arrived in the wake of Trump’s Big Ugly Bill giving tax cuts to the wealthy. Naturally these handouts to people who don’t need them are financed by cutting programs that serve low-income Americans many of which are Black or brown. The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) will be cut by 30 percent.
One in eight Americans use SNAP but its benefit reductions will disproportionately hurt Black Americans, who represent more than a quarter of SNAP recipients. With this loss of grocery dollars Black and brown families will find it harder to afford healthcare, rent, gas, utilities and other everyday necessities.
The 1 trillion plus in Medicaid cuts in Trump’s Big Ugly Bill will create a severe hardship for seniors over the next 10 years. These cuts will reduce funding for home and community based services, long-term care support, Medicaid funded transportation, case management, adult daycare, personal care services and nursing home staffing and oversight capacity. These cuts will also disproportionately affect low-income seniors and adults with disabilities.
DEI/Education
South Carolina’s Republican controlled House passed a bill prohibiting state agencies, local governments and universities from violating so-called federal discrimination laws with initiatives promoting diversity, equity and inclusion.
House members congratulated themselves claiming it will eliminate “immoral and sex-based preferences” they say are prevalent in selection processes under current D.E.I. initiatives in South Carolina.
The legislation, which passed along party lines, bans all state agencies, public schools and local governments from giving preferential treatment in hiring or enrollment decisions or discriminating against anyone based on a person’s race, gender, religion, or other aspects of their identity.
It bars government entities from having offices “for the promotion of diversity, equity and inclusion” and forbids them from requiring statements from applicants expressing support for these types of efforts.
The legislation passed despite hours of testimony from college students, professors, and K-12 teachers, as well as advocacy organizations representing women, LGBTQ+ people, racial minorities, and South Carolinians with disabilities all opposing the gutting of DEI.
Banning DEI initiatives also eliminates programs such as “Call Me MISTER” and Sisters of Septima, which are designed to recruit African American teachers in South Carolina and serve an essential role in addressing long-standing disparities in education.
Another education related issue on the horizon involves nine South Carolina Republican state representatives who have asked the House Ways and Means Committee chair to cut $35 million in state funding for South Carolina State University, the only public four-year Historically Black University in the state.
US Congressional Republicans already took away $2.7 million in funding for Pell Grant recipients. About 60 percent of Black college students are Pell recipients, according to The Postsecondary National Policy Institute. Lawmakers also proposed increasing the number of credits Pell recipients must take every semester. This means full-time working students might have to increase their educational workload, and they still might suffer from financial cuts.
Political Representation
Almost a third of the membership of the US Congressional Black Caucus is at risk of losing their seats through the 2028 election cycle as Republicans in southern states where they control the legislature move swiftly to redraw congressional maps after the Supreme Court ruling gravely weakened the Voting Rights Act’s protections for Black representation. These Black lawmakers in jeopardy of losing their seats due to the Supreme Court decision say we are sending the country “backwards.”
Not to be outdone, the South Carolina Senate recently made a move to disenfranchise Black voters by redistricting the only Democratic congressional seat, long held by US Rep. Jim Clyburn. Twenty-nine Republicans voted in favor of this effort (31 votes were required). The proposed redrawing would scatter Black voters into multiple Republican-leaning districts.
Clyburn himself suggested the plan was “a comprehensive approach to creating Jim Crow 2.0”, throwing the state back to an era of racial segregation and repression.
Although Governor Henry McMaster initially declined to call a special session to readdress the issue of redistricting he reversed course due to pressure from Trump and SC Republicans. Following on the heels of his call for a special session the South Carolina House began reviewing a redistricting proposal Wednesday, May 20th and passed its new version that same day.
Meanwhile the Senate Judiciary Committee heard from Elections Commission Executive Director Conway Belangia Wednesday afternoon.
Belangia reported that the state has sent out 11,500 ballots, and 2,500 have been returned. The state sent 800 of those ballots to military members, 300 of whom have already returned theirs.
Belangia warned the redistricting effort carries a steep price tag. He said the commission will spend an additional $3.5 million and send nearly $2 million more to counties. That brings the total new cost to roughly $5 million — more than double the original price projected just weeks ago.
“It is a monumental task, lots of man hours, lots of work not only from the state election commission but all the counties,” Belangia said.
All of this to force out James E. Clyburn, the sole Democrat representing SC in the US Congress. The redistricting proposal now goes to the SC Senate where it will be taken up for consideration on Thursday, May 21st.
Republicans already hold six of the state’s seven congressional seats but if your goal is to both please Trump and achieve one-party rule apparently no price is too high and there is no limit to how low you will go.