Democratic Gov Candidate Plays Up Education, Rural Initiatives as Fall Approaches
James Smith seems relaxed as he slides into Free Times’ Main Street office for an interview.
Dressed in jeans and a blue button-down shirt, the longtime state legislator from Columbia jumps into conversations with the paper’s sales staff, the type of easy banter that offers a peek at how he got elected 11 times to the District 75 seat in the state House of Representatives.
But the good-natured introductions belie the intensity of the race in which Smith is fighting to be the first Democrat elected governor in South Carolina since Jim Hodges in 1998. In order to get that done, he’ll have to overcome Republican Gov. Henry McMaster, the longtime Palmetto State political figure who has leaned heavily into his friendship with lightning rod President Donald Trump.
Despite what might seem like an uphill climb in typically red South Carolina — Trump beat Hillary Clinton by 14 percentage points here two years ago — Smith believes he can turn the governor’s mansion blue.
Read more: https://www.free-times.com/news/local-and-state-news/dem-gov-candidate-plays-up-education-rural-initiatives-as-fall/article_b68d071a-aafb-11e8-9f48-a73607b3ce7c.html