By Amanda McDougald Scott
GCDP Chair

As we move past the Primary Runoffs, we would like to congratulate our primary winners:

• Joe Cunningham – Governor
• Lisa Ellis – Superintendent of Education
• Krystle Matthews – US Senate
• Wendell Jones – SC House 25
• Alan Mitchell – Greenville County Council District 23

There has been a lot of activity – some positive, some distracting – going on over the past few weeks.  We must pull together and move forwards as Democrats with sometimes different points of view, but who share an overall vision of a more just, equitable, considerate, and positive city, state, country, and world.  

The truth is that we need more Democrats to win –  to hold onto and center our ideals.  No one is perfect.  We will not agree on everything.  Our election officials, like all of us, are flawed.  But overall, we know most Republicans are going to choose Party over what is best for the people.  We see that in Roe.  We see that in good Republicans who have been voted out for NOT choosing Party over people.  Even Democrats we do not agree with 100 percent of the time share enough of our values to run as Democrats – and we should put aside our disagreements and focus on the larger, overall goal.

Primaries are a great way to decide which candidates will uphold our values as a Party, who will  vote for our collective best interests.  However, when the primary is over, it is time to unite and support our nominees.  Our nominees are not the opponent.  We must keep this in the forefront of our minds.

Choose a candidate you can support and do it.  All of our candidates/nominees may not be our favorites but if we all pick a few who are, and support them, we can win some elections.  Please save the infighting for private places, and respect that every candidate is a human being with a real life…and deserves some grace.  This is really about what is best for our city, county, state, and country. Publicly shaming our candidates/nominees does not model our Democratic values or support Democratic goals.  

Let’s support growth, good ideas, best practices, and love.  Let’s learn and grow together–and put aside invented problems so that we can inspire voters and beat extremism in South Carolina in November 2022.