Trump backs winner of GOP runoff in SC 3rd District after previously endorsing rival
Former President Donald Trump announced this week he is endorsing nurse practitioner Sheri Biggs for South Carolina’s 3rd Congressional District (which includes Laurens County), after backing her rival through the Republican primary and runoff.
“Sheri Biggs is an America First Patriot who will be an incredible Congresswoman for South Carolina’s Third Congressional District!” Trump posted on Truth Social, his social media platform. “A Lieutenant Colonel in the Air National Guard, Sheri has served our Country with Distinction, and will bring that same fighting spirit to Congress.”
Trump initially endorsed pastor Mark Burns, who had made a national name for himself stumping for Trump since 2016. Burns made it out of the primary with 33% of the vote. Biggs trailed him with 29% of the vote.
But in a runoff, Biggs won the GOP nomination with 51% of the vote.
Although she did not have Trump’s endorsement at the time, Biggs said on the night of the runoff that her win was still a victory for the former president as she backed him and his agenda.
“Beyond humbled and honored to have earned the complete and total endorsement of President (Trump),” Biggs posted on X, formerly Twitter, on Wednesday evening.
Gov. Henry McMaster backed Biggs from the start, the only Congressional race where he split from Trump in his endorsements. In now endorsing Biggs, Trump noted McMaster’s support, saying the governor “is a big fan of Sheri, and so am I.”
“President Trump’s endorsement of Sheri Biggs underscores her strength as a candidate who will go to Washington to deliver for South Carolina, championing our shared conservative values and pushing back against the liberal agenda,” said Brandon Cahrochak, spokesman for McMaster, on Friday.
Biggs will face Democrat Bryon Best and Mike Bedenbaugh of the Alliance Party in November in a bid to represent the conservative Upstate district that spans 11 counties and runs along the Georgia border from Edgefield County to the state’s northwest corner.
Biggs and Burns emerged from a crowded primary after U.S. Rep. Jeff Duncan, of Laurens, announced in January that he wouldn’t seek re-election after 14 years in Congress.
SC Democratic candidate for Congress joins calls for President Biden to step aside as nominee
The Democratic candidate for South Carolina’s 1st Congressional District called for President Joe Biden to withdraw from the U.S. presidential race on Thursday.
Michael Moore, who won the Democratic primary last month and will challenge U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., in November, posted his call for Biden to step down on X, formerly known as Twitter. Moore said the president should help in transitioning to a new nominee.
Michael B. Moore
@michael_b_moore
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Today, I’m calling on President Biden to withdraw from the 2024 White House race — and to help guide Democrats’ transition to a new nominee ahead of the November election.
Moore told the SC Daily Gazette on Friday that following the first presidential debate last week, where Biden performed poorly, he is concerned Biden will not be able to win again. Biden was trailing Trump already in the polls, he said, and has slid further since the debate.
“I think the debate performance – American’s not going to be able to unsee that,” Moore told the Gazette. “I don’t think that President Biden is the best person to lead the country going forward.”
That said, Moore wanted to emphasize that Biden should be acknowledged for what he has achieved in his first term, and still has an important role to play for the party by guiding a new nominee. He did not name a specific person he wanted to replace Biden.
Biden said on Friday that he is not stepping aside, but Moore said that statement did not change his concerns about Biden, or his position the president needs to step aside.
This week two other Democrats in Congress, U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett of Texas and U.S. Rep. Raúl Grijalva of Arizona, have called for Biden to step aside. On Friday afternoon the Washington Post reported that Sen. Mark Warner, D-Virginia, is trying to gather other Democrats to ask Biden to leave the race.
U.S. Rep. Jim Clyburn, South Carolina’s only current Democratic member of Congress and a co-chair of the Biden-Harris Campaign told MSNBC on Tuesday that he still backs Biden at the top of the ticket. Clyburn did say, if Biden steps aside, he would support Vice President Kamala Harris as the party’s nominee.
Abraham Kenmore is a reporter covering elections, health care and more. He joins the SC Daily Gazette from The Augusta Chronicle, where he reported on Georgia legislators, military and housing issues.
SC Daily Gazette is part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization.
WHAT THE TRUMP CAMPAIGN HAS TO SAY ABOUT PRESIDENT BIDEN:
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Things have gotten so bad for Joe Biden, he had to write a letter to members of his own party in Congress insisting he’s staying in the race. Someone should ask Joe Biden if he wrote the letter or if he remembers what’s in it. No where in the letter does he explain what happened in the debate, nor the many dozens of times he has been confused, lost, or incoherent – including those we have seen ourselves in public and those reported instances when the cameras aren’t rolling. Instead, he doubles down on the same snake oil lies Americans aren't buying. Among the many lies:
Interestingly, Crooked Joe Biden said “we have one job” in the letter. It wasn't helping families or keeping our nation safe, it was, “beat Donald Trump.” That's because for Joe Biden, it’s always been about one thing: Power. For President Trump, it’s always been about Making America Great Again. ALSO: This is the RNC’s Republican National Platform:
Link to platform here. What President Biden is telling his party here. |
Biden tells congressional Dems he is staying in the race, urges end to speculation
BY: JACOB FISCHLER, SC Daily Gazette - JULY 8, 2024 1:19 PM
President Joe Biden pledged Monday to stay in his race for reelection, even after a weekend in which a growing number of Democrats asked for him to withdraw and a key U.S. House Republican called for an investigation into the president’s doctor.
In a letter to congressional Democrats, Biden argued that the calls for him to drop out of the presidential race — with just 119 days until Election Day — ignored the results of Democratic primaries and caucuses that he handily won and said he remained the best candidate to defeat former President Donald Trump.
The two-page letter ended with a call for party unity and an end to the public back-and-forth among Democrats over whether Biden should leave the race, after a June 27 debate performance that shook some high-ranking Democrats’ confidence in his ability to overcome his polling deficit against Trump.
“The question of how to move forward has been well-aired for over a week now,” Biden wrote. “And it’s time for it to end. We have one job. And that is to beat Donald Trump.”
Comer seeks interview with Biden doctor
Congress returns Monday from a weeklong July Fourth recess after several days in which members of both parties continued to press the issue of Biden’s fitness for office.
Republicans also began pressing for more details. House Oversight and Accountability Chair James Comer on Sunday called for Biden’s physician, Dr. Kevin O’Connor, to submit to a transcribed interview about his assessments of Biden and O’Connor’s business dealings with James Biden, the president’s brother.
The Kentucky Republican said Biden and the White House had sent mixed messages about recent medical examinations of the president.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters last week that Biden had not been examined by a doctor since his regular checkup in February.
But Biden told a group of Democratic governors the same day that he was “checked out by a doctor” following the debate, Comer wrote.
Following the debate, Biden, attempting to explain a low, raspy voice, said he’d had a cold.
Comer also questioned if O’Connor could accurately report Biden’s health, or if he was compromised by a conflict of interest because of his involvement with James Biden’s rural health care company, Americore. James Biden has testified to the committee that he sought O’Connor’s counsel for the business.
The White House did not respond to a message seeking comment about Comer’s request.
More Democrats call for withdrawal
The holiday weekend also saw more U.S. House Democrats join a list of those asking Biden to step aside rather than seek reelection.
In a written statement on Saturday, Minnesota’s Angie Craig became the first member from a competitive district to call on the president to quit the race. Craig is the fifth member to publicly call for the president’s withdrawal.
Additional members are making private calls, according to media reports.
Four Democrats who lead House committees — Jerry Nadler of New York on the Judiciary Committee, Adam Smith of Washington on the Armed Services Committee, Mark Takano of California on the Veterans’ Affairs Committee and Joe Morelle of New York on the House Administration Committee — said during a caucus leadership call on Sunday that Biden should withdraw, according to reports.
Other accounts reported more members on the call, including Susan Wild of Pennsylvania and Jim Himes of Connecticut, also opposed Biden’s continued candidacy. Wild later told the Pennsylvania Capital-Star she expressed concerns about Biden’s electability.
In an impromptu call in to the MSNBC show “Morning Joe” on Monday, Biden insisted again he was staying in the race and called for any opponents he had to “challenge” him at the party’s convention in Chicago next month.
Biden, who has secured enough pledged delegates through primary and caucus wins to clinch the nomination, would be heavily favored in a contested convention. Democratic Party rules mandate pledged delegates “shall in all good conscience reflect the sentiments of those who elected them,” but are not legally required to cast their convention vote for their pledged candidate.
Jacob covers federal policy as a senior reporter for States Newsroom. Based in Oregon, he focuses on Western issues. His coverage areas include climate, energy development, public lands and infrastructure.
SC Daily Gazette is part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization.
