CV NEWS FEED // Conservatives slammed South Carolina Republican lawmakers for their ongoing attempt to elect 2018 Democratic Gubernatorial nominee James Smith to a state circuit court judgeship.
A favorite of President Joe Biden, Smith served in the South Carolina House of Representatives from 1996 to 2019. He won his party’s nomination for governor in 2018 but lost the general election to incumbent Republican Gov. Henry McMaster by a closer-than-expected margin of eight points.
According to the Charleston-based The Post and Courier, Biden personally recruited Smith to run for governor, persuading him to enter the race on at least two separate occasions.
“Supporting Smith is seen as [a] way for Biden … to ramp up a 2020 presidential bid, speculation that he’s brushed off,” The Post and Courier reported in 2017. “Biden said he’s backing a candidate who is a kindred spirit of his late son and could bring a sense of service to the state’s highest office.”
“I know he’s in my corner,” Smith said at the time of his longtime friend Joe Biden.
“The SC ‘Republican’ supermajority set to elect pro-Planned Parenthood, pro-BLM, and former Democrat candidate for Gov James Smith as a judge!” the South Carolina Freedom Caucus wrote on X (formerly Twitter) Monday.
“We need judicial reform NOW,” emphasized the coalition of conservative South Carolina legislators. “Call your Rep and say vote NO on this liberal judge!”
The Freedom Caucus referenced a piece last Thursday from FITSNews Founding Editor Will Folks criticizing Smith and his solidly left-wing record.
“Smith has earned the support of a majority of ‘Republican’ lawmakers in his bid for a [South Carolina] circuit court judgeship,” Folks pointed out. “Smith ran one of the most left-of-center gubernatorial campaigns in South Carolina history – including promises to expand access to ‘safe, legal abortion.’”
A regional affiliate of Planned Parenthood Action endorsed Smith in his race against McMaster.
In doing so, Planned Parenthood Votes! South Atlantic (PPVSAT) stated that Smith “recognizes the critical need for the full range of expert reproductive health care Planned Parenthood South Atlantic provides — including safe, legal abortion — in the communities we serve.”
While serving in the state House, “James Smith has supported abortion on demand,” South Carolina Citizens for Life (SCCL) President Lisa Van Riper said in a McMaster campaign ad which aired in October 2018. “He personally worked against a bill to ban dismemberment abortions. He has supported amendments claiming that unborn babies cannot feel pain.”
SCCL is the South Carolina state affiliate of the National Right to Life Committee (NRLC).
Folks added: “Smith also campaigned in 2018 on a costly ‘Medicare-for-all’ single-payer health care system – i.e. the exact proposal embraced by socialist U.S. senator Bernie Sanders.”
“As he seeks a judgeship, Smith hasn’t been credibly challenged on any of these issues – except abortion,” Folks went on:
According to our sources, he met privately with several Freedom Caucus members recently and told them if elected he would not attempt to erode last summer’s S.C. supreme court decision upholding a six-week abortion ban.
“Can’t wait until his friends at Planned Parenthood find out about that,” he added.
