SPEAKING FREELY ABOUT RADIA BAXTER, CANDIDATE FOR THE 116TH HOUSE DISTRICT

In order to flip six House seats in November and end the Republican supermajority in Columbia, perhaps no seat is more flippable than the 116th.

This seat is adjacent to Dorchester County, embracing parts of Colleton County and southern Charleston County.

Until 2022, the 116th had been safely in Democratic hands for a remarkable 48 years. Robert Brown held it from 2001 until he retired in 2020, when he was succeeded by Democrat Chardale Murray.

However, redistricting and a change in demographics made it much more competitive. Chardale Murray lost in 2022 to Republican Matt Leber by 581 votes (out of nearly 17,000 cast). In 2024, Leber abandoned the seat to run for the State Senate. He was succeeded by wealthy Republican interloper James Teeple, who defeated Chardale’s brother, Charlie Murray, by 592 votes (out of 24,560 cast).

Clearly, the tiny Republican victory margins in 2022 and 2024, and the fact that the district leans Democrat by three percentage points, make it ripe for flipping. In addition, Teeple had to spend $300,000 to win the seat, and he had Trump on the ballot with him. He may have the money again, but he won’t have Trump.

Three Democrats will face off in a primary for the right to challenge Teeple. One is David Bell, a Navy veteran and businessman; a second is Clay N. Middleton, a former aide to Congressman James Clyburn and a member of the South Carolina Army National Guard; and the third is Radia Baxter.

Much like Jessica Bright, the candidate for Dorchester County Council who is profiled on the DCDP’s blog, Baxter has spent her political life behind the scenes, working on the campaigns of State Senators Deon Tedder and Marlon Kimpson, and Representative Wendell Gilliard, among others.

She did not run before so as to protect the privacy of her three young children. But they are now 27, 26 and 20. She reports they all support her decision. “I had a spiritual moment,” Baxter says about running. “This is the right time and the right moment.”

One measure of Baxter’s character is the job she held as Detentions Program Director for the Charleston County Sheriff’s office during the term of Kristin Graziano. Her goal was to convince those awaiting sentencing that they had a future once they had served their terms.

For starters she referred to them as “residents” of the jail, not prisoners. She helped them finish high school and earn a diploma, or she guided them through the GED requirements. She offered Alcoholics Anonymous treatment to those who needed it. She provided classes on leadership.

She taught them to play chess, because it requires strategic thinking. She awarded them certificates of achievement when they completed various programs. “Many of these residents had never received a certificate of achievement for anything,” she says sadly. “A certificate showed them they had done the right thing.” It was a small gesture, she says, that greatly raised their self-esteem and confidence.

Baxter tried to change the residents’ perspective about their value to the community and their role in it. She even worked with the families of residents so they could better understand how different life is “inside” the prison system, and better prepare for when their relatives finished their terms and returned home.

Baxter remains in touch with many of these residents and takes great pride in how they have turned their lives around.

She left the position when it became clear that Sheriff Graziano was going to lose her re-election bid, which turned out to be the case. Since leaving the Sheriff’s office, Baxter has been running her own consulting business, offering advice on government relations, affordable housing and project management.

Now that the Supreme Court of the United States has gutted the Voting Rights Act, it will be more important than ever for Blacks and other minorities to turn out in large numbers to support their candidates. This is an issue of particular importance to Baxter. She remembers her grandfather telling her that in order to vote, he was forced to read the Constitution to a poll worker and surmount other hurdles. Nevertheless, despite these efforts at voter suppression, Blacks during her grandfather’s time voted in high percentages.

Now, she shakes her head and wonders why turnout is much lower, even though the barriers to voting are not nearly as high as those her grandfather’s generation faced.

Baxter therefore intends to make voter education and voter participation a centerpiece of her campaign. In light of the recent Supreme Court decision, this could not be more timely or urgent.

If she wins the seat, Baxter will focus not only on voting rights, but also better pay and working conditions for public school teachers. “Teachers have to be at their best in the classroom,” she says. “We don’t want them worrying about their own economic problems while they are trying to teach. We have to remove those barriers.”

She will work to get essential fire, police and first responder services to the small communities in her district that cannot afford them on small municipal budgets.

Improving rural health care and restoring the rights of all women to quality health care will also be priorities for her.

In an era of intense political polarization, with common decency in short supply, Baxter’s DNA is all about cooperation and making connections. She has lived much of her life connecting people to each other and to community resources, which she demonstrated in the Detentions Program. Her ten years as a volunteer on the Board of the Charleston YWCA, where she is completing a term as Chair, is also proof of her commitment to community.

Even though Dorchester County residents cannot vote for Baxter, they can work for her or contribute to her campaign. The 116th is historically a Democratic seat; it must return to its roots in 2027.

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