Who’s more conservative? 2 challengers seek to unseat SC GOP chair

South Carolina Republicans control both State House chambers, the governor’s and statewide offices.

In 2020, Republicans flipped back a Democrat-held seat, made more red in the last redistricting cycle, and secured their hold over U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham’s Senate seat, defeating Democrat Jaime Harrison, who now chairs the Democratic National Committee.

Still, two Republicans vying to replace Drew McKissick say the state Republican Party chairman has not done enough to push conservative values — a race symbolic of the national and statewide intraparty squabbles in the Trump era over the past several years.

This Saturday, a simple majority of the expected 943 state GOP delegates who’ll descend on Lexington’s River Bluff High School will decide their next chairman and the face of the party before the 2024 presidential election.

McKissick is running for his fourth two-year term against Greenville County’s Jeff Davis, who was once thrown out of a state executive meeting, and Zoe Warren, who unsuccessfully ran for lieutenant governor in 2022 on a joint ticket with Harrison Musselwhite, also known as “Trucker Bob.”

McMaster, a Richland County delegate, told reporters earlier this month that he’s backing McKissick, first elected chair in 2017.

“He’s done I think a fine job over the years,” said McMaster, who served as S.C. GOP chairman from 1993-2002. “I can see that the party is moving well. We’re winning elections and we have a good chairman. When your team is winning you don’t change the coach.”

Davis and Warren say it’s not the winning that’s the problem with McKissick, but it’s whether the party has done enough to elect Republicans who will pass conservative legislation in the State House.

Both cite a ranking by The Center for Legislative Accountability, an initiative of the Conservative Political Action Coalition, that rates South Carolina’s General Assembly as the 27th most conservative state legislature in the country in 2021. The organization bases its ratings on a review of more than 105,000 bills and whether lawmakers made a vote that follows conservative principles.

“The mission of the South Carolina Republican Party is to promote the platform and elect candidates who will support that platform,” Warren said. “I want to support anybody who is going to support our platform and help people in precincts that will have support of candidates who support our platform,” Warren said.

Both Davis and Warren believed in unfounded allegations that the 2020 presidential election was stolen. Musselwhite, who ran on a ticket with Warren, also challenged the results of the 2022 governor’s race, despite that McMaster won with 83% of the vote.

The S.C. GOP’s executive committee rejected the challenge.

Davis, meanwhile, also has run on a school choice platform, calling the state’s program the worst in the nation. A nonprofit private school scholarship program he and his wife, Olga Lisinska, ran has been unable to raise money and provide scholarships.

“I don’t necessarily want the (chair’s) job. I want the people that are in the position to do the job, and Drew McKissick is not doing the job,” Davis said.

A common theme over the year from the conservative faction of Republicans is that GOP leaders are not doing enough to push conservative legislation when the party controls the General Assembly.

Warren, for instance, wants Republicans to close primaries and criticized House GOP Caucus rules that, in part, prohibit members from campaigning against their caucus colleagues, coined as a “loyalty oath” by the now-18 member House Freedom Caucus. The 18-member freedom caucus, part of the national State Freedom Caucus Network, has pushed the lower chamber to pass what it deems more conservative bills. The caucus recently sued the House Ethic Committee to be able to raise money and campaign for candidates.

McKissick has disputed Davis and Warren’s allegations that he’s somehow not conservative enough.

For example, he says, he’s endorsed and pushed state lawmakers to pass a six-week abortion ban previously thrown out by the state Supreme Court, advocated for lawmakers to loosen gun regulations, urged lawmakers to eliminate hospital build rules and used the bully pulpit to call on the Legislature to expand school choice options for parents.

“This is not an issue of a lack of progress on any conservative policies. The bottom line is what is the organization about? We are a campaign committee, and that’s what some people don’t want to recognize. Our job is to win campaigns,” McKissick said, pointing to other policy-oriented organizations that exist to to push legislation.

Davis’ run follows contentious relationship with GOP

Davis’ candidacy for state GOP chair in particular follows what has been a yearslong tumultuous relationship between him and many South Carolina Republicans.

In 2021, Davis asked Lin Wood, a Trump attorney who pushed conspiracy theories about the 2020 election, to challenge McKissick for chair. McKissick won with 68% of the vote.

Davis also has been at odds with Republicans over the state’s private school scholarship program for children with special needs.

The S.C. Department of Revenue investigated Palmetto Kids First, the nonprofit ran by Davis and his wife, Lisinska, after the agency received complaints that the nonprofit pressured parents into donating in exchange for scholarship and tax credits.

Lawmakers later made changes that kept the couple from running their nonprofit school choice scholarship program.

Since, Davis has filed several lawsuits against the Exceptional Ed scholarship program and its leaders, including Chad Connelly, a former S.C. GOP chair.

“I would like to have someone in that (chair) position who can bring us all together, is not going to fall toward the establishment once we get elected, and I think that’s why a lot of people have confidence in me that I’m not going to capitulate to the establishment if I get elected,” Davis said.

The same year that Davis urged Wood to challenge McKissick, Davis was elected chair of the Greenville County Republican Party. Davis is a leader of the ”My SCGOP” movement, which advocated against COVID-19 precautions, such as wearing masks or vaccine requirements. In response, local GOP members launched the Fourth District Republican Club for mainstream Republicans in Greenville and Spartanburg counties.

Davis was later censured and barred in 2021 from future state GOP meetings, and he was kicked out of a state executive committee meeting after clashing with party members, the Greenville News reported.

“Drew has been arrogant, he’s been vindictive, used a heavy hand to quash down any kind of debate,” said Davis, who was elected Greenville County’s GOP state committeeman earlier this year.

McKissick declined to discuss the party’s specific issues with Davis.

“I’m not going to focus on rehashing any of his individual problems, making him the focus of anything and letting him be a martyr,” McKissick said.

Instead, McKissick said he will continue to focus on campaign fundamentals.

“You have to have a message that resonates with people. You have to have the organization and the manpower to get your vote out, and then you have to raise the money to make those two things possible,” McKissick said. “Everything revolves around that. If you don’t have those three things, well, you’re going to have problems.”