Joe Cunningham, Runing for Governor of South Carolina

In 2018, I was enthusiastic about Democrat Joe Cunningham, running in the 1st CD of South Carolina, which includes the bluish city of Charleston. Naturally, because I promoted him on this obscure North Carolina blog, he won that race, and not so wonderfully (but understandable, after all, ... because South Carolina) he aligned as a Blue Dog in Congress (and I am capable of capacious forgiveness when the majority is at stake).

Also, naturally, because South Carolina, and because of the surge in toxic Trumpism in 2020, Cunningham promptly lost his seat last November (by 1 measly percentage point). I mourned that loss along with several others I had cheered on in 2018.

Now Cunningham has declared his candidacy for governor of South Carolina next year. On Twitter someone who knows South Carolina better than I said, "Yes, Joe Cunningham will be a good candidate, and no, he can't win." I'm familiar with that let's-kill-our-chickens-before-they-hatch defensiveness on the part of Southern Democrats who are all too accustomed to useless gestures and doomed races, but I don't hazard any prognostications. Cunningham won his seat in Congress in an off year, and 2022 will be an off year again, so who knows. (The Shadow knows!)

“I think the test of a true leader is whether or not you’ll be honest with people about the real challenges facing our state and have the backbone to actually fix them,” Cunningham said in an exclusive interview with The Post and Courier on April 25. Current Governor Henry McMaster "failed that test, but I won’t.” One of the ways McMaster failed was in his cavalier disregard for the COVID pandemic, which cost lives.

“I’ve been thinking about what kind of future I want my son and other children and grandchildren to have here in this state,” Cunningham said. “I love this state and I will make sure that we’re living up to our God-given potential.”

New Hope in the US House: Joe Cunningham from South Carolina

Among the many nationwide Congressional races that animated my political corpuscles and my hope for surviving Trump ... Democrat Joe Cunningham's campaign in the 1st Congressional District of South Carolina, a coastal district that includes Charleston. Cunningham won the seat on Tuesday with 50.71% of the vote. I'm proud to say that I first took note of Joe Cunningham's arrival as a brand-new candidate back in February 2018, and I kept up with what looked to me like a winning and newly minted politician.





He's the first Democrat elected in this district in over 30 years. This was the seat once held by Tim Scott, the black Republican who went on to the US Senate, and by Mark Sanford, who went on a hike ... actually, two hikes, the second one being his loss in the Republican primary last spring after he dared to criticize Twitterman.

Katie Arrington, the Trump-endorsed woman who won that primary, had the Trump laying-on-of-hands during the final days of the campaign (see photo below), and her defeat is being called an "upset" by South Carolina political operatives. Arrington chose to ape Trump in talking about the "immigrant invasion" of our Southern border, and that didn't earn her any enthusiasm in the 1st District. She also supported Trump's plan to allow more offshore oil and gas exploration, something the coastal tourism industry hates and dreads.

Donald Junior stumped for Arrington on election eve, and The Donald Himself recorded a robocall for her ... more evidence that lashing yourself to Trump's axle in a urban/suburban district might not be good for your political health.

Junior with losing candidate Katie Arrington,
Nov. 5, 2018

How Can You Tell When They're Nervous? They Sweat Money

Republicans approve of fear as good politics -- caravans of illegals looking to spread a plague of leprosy, for just one example -- so let's talk fear with one week to go. Republican fear. Oh, they're not actually afraid of brown-skinned plague-bearers. That's just a pose (or else they're as gullible as a Florida bomb maker or a synagogue murderer). What they're really afraid of right now is losing big-time.

Watching the scrambles of Republican PAC money in Washington -- now that's a study in fear.

congressional seats needed for Dems to take the House ... 23
*congressional seats held by Rs in districts won by Clinton in 2016 ... 25
deep red seats that now look flippable to blue ... ??  

Guesses vary, go as high as 70 or more. Predictions are always fantasies.

But seriously, folks, literally dozens of "comer" Democrats are running in red districts from Maine to Washington state who could overturn the tables of the money-changers, good D candidates running exceptional campaigns in deep red districts. They're muddying predictions because they're playing for keeps and playing well in districts no one thought competitive.

Republican disbelievers in a blue wave fall back on recent history: Those deep red districts aren't really flippable because Trump's base is fired up, and it's the Democrats who're an angry, impotent mob, and Congressional districts just don't change hands that much. Weren't they paying attention during all those 2017 and early 2018 special elections (save one, below) in which longtime Republican incumbents went down -- or ancient Republican state and Federal seats changed hands, often decisively, like an ice-water slap? Don't they remember that?

So news reaches us here this morning that the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) is rushing quick aid to a number of Republican candidates (both incumbents and newcomers) running in red districts that Trump took in 2016 by anywhere from 7 to 20+ points ... because of impressive Democrats running stronger than anyone thought possible.

Partial list of those in-trouble Rs (and their D challengers, who are pictured):

Lucy McBath

Karen Handel --first-term Republican incumbent. You may recall how Handel won her seat in a special 2017 election against young, attractive Democratic opponent Jon Ossoff. If you recall that, you'll also recall our getting excited about Ossoff, who popped onto the national radar well funded and staffed by professionals. But Ossoff lost that special election to Handel for apparently being too much the outsider, a liberal pimp. Instead of a Northern carpetbagger like Ossoff, this year the Democrats of the 6th District of Georgia picked Lucy McBath. She's very much the insider. Also black, young, and an avowed proponent of gun control. They're afraid of McBath in Georgia (let alone D.C.) and are pumping up Handel. With Stacey Abrams at the top of the Georgia ticket, McBath and Abrams would mutually benefit from voter enthusiasm if they can overcome the voter suppression.

Abigail Spanberger

Dave Brat -- in Virginia's 7th District. He's the brat who beat powerful incumbent Republican big-wig Eric Cantor in 2014. He's in trouble. Democrat Abigail Spanberger, a former CIA officer, has come on strong. A poll by the Wason Center for Public Policy at Christopher Newport University very recently put Spanberger over Brat, 46 - 45. NRCC is pouring money in for attack ads on TV.

Leslie Cockburn

Denver Riggleman -- in Virginia's 5th District. Riggleman is running for the seat left open by retiring Republican Tom Garrett, who announced he had an alcohol problem, and the high he got from being powerful wasn't helping. Background on Garrett here. Democrat Leslie Cockburn won the primary and has been a credible candidate in a sprawling rural district that includes the university town of Charlottesville. We wrote extensively about Cockburn way back in May.

Joe Cunningham

Katie Arrington -- in South Carolina's 1st District, which includes Charleston. Arrington is Trump-blessed (he laid his holy hands on Arrington's noggin in the Republican primary after incumbent Republican adulterer Mark Sanford dared to criticize the president out loud). According to Sullivan and Weigel, "Katie Arrington has had trouble putting away her Democratic opponent, Joe Cunningham," in a district both Trump and Mark Sanford won easily. I've written admiringly of Cunningham more than once. He looks like a winner to me.

Amy McGrath

Garland "Andy" Barr -- in Kentucky's 6th. Incumbent Barr is seriously endangered by former fighter pilot Amy McGrath, who's been a favorite of mine all year. Barr is getting big TV money and consultants to try to knock those wings off McGrath. Trump carried the 6th District by 13 points. House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) is flying in to campaign for Barr -- curious choice, since Ryan himself is a perfect symbol of Republican defeatism in this cycle -- Ryan retired rather than face IronStache.













* NRCC and Republican super-PACS have been pulling support for some incumbents considered too far gone to save -- throwing them to the wolves.

Joe Cunningham: South Carolina Needs This Eagle Scout

Delighted to see that the 1st Congressional District of South Carolina made the list of 63 competitive House districts, most of them currently held by Republicans, because I've been a fan of South Carolina Democrat Joe Cunningham since he announced. (Full disclosure: I am not a contributor. There's only so much I can afford, and almost all of it goes to candidates inside North Carolina, except for young James Lee Auman in the Alabama 4th District, which didn't make the list of competitive districts, but I don't care: I'm impressed by bravery and hard work.)

But Joe Cunningham in South Carolina ... running for the Congressional seat that Mark Sanford got booted from in this year's Republican primary. The 1st Congressional District of South Carolina hugs the coast and takes in the old Confederate Emerald City of Charleston, which is much less Confederate now but still as stodgy as freshly starched crinolines.

When a reporter asked him, "Who recruited you to run," Cunningham replied, "My own conscience." We've been hearing variations of that answer from a lot of Democratic candidates this year, especially in supposedly "safe" Republican districts.

Cunningham is actually a native of Kentucky. His father is Bill Cunningham, who sits on the Kentucky Supreme Court. Joe followed his father into the practice of law, but not immediately. First, he got a degree in ocean engineering and worked in both Florida and on the South Carolina coast before going back to law school. He now specializes in construction law.

He's come out strong against off-shore drilling, which his Republican opponent is on record supporting. (If I'd been directing that commercial, though, I would have rethought putting the candidate up to his chin in the ocean, but that's a quibble. He's good on his feet, and I think that's how voters might prefer to see him.)

His best video is on his homepage, but here's another sampling of his personality. You can see the Eagle Scout from a mile away:





I like what his father said about him: “He doesn’t scare easily. When he said he wanted to become an Eagle Scout, he focused on that, was laser-focused on it. Everything he set his mind to, growing up, he did. I’ve learned not to underestimate him.”

Congressman Mark Sanford (R-S.C.) Has a Primary Today, and It's No Walk on the Appalachian Trail

Donald J. Trump endorsed Mark Sanford's Republican opponent today, with only three hours left for voting in the primary: “Mark Sanford has been very unhelpful to me in my campaign to MAGA,” Trump tweeted. “He is MIA and nothing but trouble. He is better off in Argentina. I fully endorse Katie Arrington for Congress in SC, a state I love. She is tough on crime and will continue our fight to lower taxes. VOTE Katie!”

Arrington has criticized Sanford primarily for criticizing Trump.

Curiouser and curiouser, because Arrington herownself has a history of dissing Trump: "In a March 2016 Facebook post, she praised Mitt Romney on the night that he delivered a rebuke of then-Presidential Candidate Donald Trump, whom Romney called 'a phony, a fraud' and someone who was 'playing the members of the American public for suckers.' 'LOVE MITT ROMNEY!!!!!' Arrington wrote that night. When challenged by someone about the posting, Arrington doubled-down, writing that she 'really has a problem with the moral and ethical issue of someone being president who has done nothing more than ... make fun of people'."

It appears that Arrington has had a change of heart. It also appears (again) that Trump doesn't read.

Whoever wins this Republican primary will have this guy -- Joe Cunningham -- as the likely Democratic opponent. We like Joe's chances, whether it's against Mark Sanford or finger-in-the-wind Katie Arrington.

Take a Look at Democrat Joe Cunningham in South Carolina

One of the best introductory campaign videos I've seen in months! Joe Cunningham is running in the 1st South Carolina Congressional District against Mark Sanford (yes, that Mark Sanford of "Appalachian Trail" fame). Joe Cunningham is very much in the 2018 Blue Wave frame of reference, a quality Democratic candidate who has every opportunity to flip that district.