Obamaesque Flyer Heats Up S.C. House 6 Race
Greg Wilson/Anderson Observer
Mudslinging has a long history in politics, dating back to the Thomas Jefferson fight with Alexander Hamilton. And for more than two decades South Carolina’s Lee Atwater led the charge for Republicans on the national stage.
Atwater found the “secret to screwing everything up” successfully was to not get caught. He wrote that dirty tactics needed to be “so subtle that they can’t nab you for anything.”
At least one Republican politician borrowed a page from the Atwater book this week when sending out a flyer which on the front labeled her Republican primary opponent as a Democrat and reckoning his face on the iconic President Barak Obama poster, which made her opponent look very much a minority.
S.C. Rep. April Cromer, R-Anderson, a member of the South Carolina Freedom Caucus, is in a heated race with Anderson Attorney Kyle White for the house district six seat, and the flyer she mailed this week might have been the most ostentatious example of where we are in today’s political landscape.
“A lot of people I trust and know what they are talking about say it (the flyer) looks like a desperation move because things are not going her way,” said White.
“This is clearly an attempt to make Kyle White look like a black man and a racist attempt to gain votes for April Cromer,” said former S.C. House Rep. West Cox, Rep-Anderson, who lost his seat to S.C. House Rep. Thomas Beach, Rep-Anderson, who is also a member of the S.C. Freedom Caucus.
Cox said he was unsurprised to see the mailer.
“People who live in a post-truth, anti-truth world will say anything,” said Cox.
“Regular legislators are trying to pass laws, read bills and vote, keep their businesses afloat, serve constituents and take care of their families,” said Cox. “They don’t have time to make noise and create the illusion that issues exist where they do not.”
The reverse side of the flyer states that White didn’t vote for President Donald Trump in 2016, did not vote Republican “in at least 11 elections,” and had contributed to the elections of three democratic elections.
White, said the mailer is “very intentionally misleading” and he believes it will help his campaign.
In a mailer of his own, White’s mother Republican Attorney and Former 10th-Circuit Solicitor Druanne White responded to why her son failed to vote at all in the 2016 General Election:
“Kyle and his wife, Ashlea, did not vote in the general election on November 8, 2016, for a very good reason. Their youngest child, Max, was born at the end of October 2016, and he had to be admitted to the NICU when his oxygen levels were critically low. After Kyle spent days in NICU with Max (while Ashlea recovered from her own birth related complications), Max and Ashlea were released to go home, where Ashlea continued to recover, and Kyle and Ashlea were
on a round-the-clock vigil with Max during the first few weeks of November 2016 to make sure he did not stop breathing. Kyle and Ashlea’s priorities were with their child above all else
during this time, as they should have been. Kyle is a true Republican. I am confident that he will be an excellent Republican State Representative.”
Kyle White said that most of the comments he has received find the morphing of his face to look like Obama found the piece “ridiculous.”
“They take 2+2 and say it equals 22,” said White. “The piece takes great liberties using a small amount of information without context. At best it is misleading.”
But White also said that he has learned a lot about the importance of primary voting since making a decision to run for office in the Fall of 2023.
“The flyer says I didn’t vote Republican in 11 elections,” said White. “It’s because until recent years I did not vote at all in primary elections because I did not fully understand their importance.”
“I have learned the importance of everybody voting in every single primary,” said White. “While it’s important to vote in national elections, local and state elections affect our lives on a daily basis more directly.”
He also said that business people donating to clients who are members of both parties is common. White said that in his 15 years as a businessman, part of his comprehensive strategy has been donating to clients of both parties with whom he is working on cases.
“President Trump was attacked for the same thing, for donating to Democrats as part of his business strategy,” said White. Between 1989-2016, Trump donated $694,750 to Democratic candidates – including Hillary Clinton, Chuck Shumer and even Joe Biden – while donating $1,150,540 to Republicans. Trump’s donations to Democrats decreased between 2011-2015.
“He said he did it because he is a good businessman and had to work with both sides,” said White. “The same principle is true in my case.”
Cox said the most recent flyer is indicative of Freedom Caucus tactics.
“They create chaos outside the wall of the Capitol building with an aggressive operation of paid people who post clips of stories and video to social media to make it appear they are doing something,” said Cox, who added that national funding is paying for this work.
At least 17 of South Carolina’s 124 House members are officially listed as members of the Freedom Caucus, although the number could be higher due to some members preferring to remain anonymous according to the group’s website. Two members of the Anderson County Legislative Delegation, Cromer and Beach, are members of the caucus, and three other candidates for the June 11 primary are also running as supporting the group.
“They have replaced legislating with campaigning full time,” said Cox. “They don’t believe in constituent services, because that doesn’t build their social media profile.”
White said he thinks the key to his candidacy in this year’s primaries is voter turnout.
“I think if regular people turned out to vote, there wouldn’t be a Freedom Caucus,” said White.
Early voting for the June 11 South Carolina Primary begins Tuesday. To read more about candidates running in Anderson County, visit here.