Steve Bannon Blasts Mainstream S.C. ‘Republicans’ In Upstate Address

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Former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon excoriated the Palmetto State’s mainstream GOP during a headline address at the Greenville County Republican Party (GCGOP) convention this week.

Bannon, 71, of Norfolk, Virginia, is the founder of ‘War Room’ on Real America’s Voice. Prior to that, he was a key advisor to Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign and, briefly, a senior counselor to the president during Trump’s first term.

Bannon’s brand of populist conservatism directly aligned with Trump’s “MAGA” rebirth of the Republican party into a working-class juggernaut.

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Trump’s redefining of the Republican agenda didn’t happen without internecine bloodshed. His savaging of “low energy” Jeb Bush or “little” Marco Rubio on the GOP debate stage occurred alongside similarly heated battles for control of county-level Republican organizations.

This fight has played out across the Palmetto State – host of the pivotal “First in the South” presidential primary.

“Historically, hardly anyone showed up for ReOrg at all: mostly just a few insiders known to the party, many of whom had held their precinct leadership position for years,” GCGOP leader Olga Lisinska wrote in a March, 2023 FITSNews guest column.  “This cozy little arrangement kept the state GOP firmly in control of things.”

Lisinska was referring to the process by which party members semi-annually elect local representatives – who, in turn, choose the leaders of the state party.

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“Then came 2021 and everything changed,” Lisinska said. “Three conservative groups based in the Upstate, including mySCGOP.com, banded together. They began educating conservative voters about the strategy called ‘the precinct project,’ outlined brilliantly by author Dan Schultz.  The weekly audience for these Greenville County sessions grew to standing room only.”

Liskinka and her husband, Jeff Davis, waged a civil war against the party’s old guard, and almost succeeded in toppling four-term state party chairman Drew McKissick at the party’s 2023 re-organization meeting.

“Drew barely won, by only sixteen votes!” state representative Rob Harris noted at the time, adding that McKissick “represents the same establishment that I have to fight against, day in and day out in the South Carolina legislature.”

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While Davis narrowly failed to usurp McKissick at the state level, he and his allies effectively assumed control of the GCGOP organization – a takeover that Bannon believes serves as a model for ground-up political upheaval nationwide.

“You understand how you turn your country around,” Bannon told a packed Greenville convention center hall.

While Bannon’s speech focused most of it’s fire on foes like “the sociopath overlords on Wall Street,” and “the apartheid state oligarchs in Silicon Valley,” he repeatedly made it clear that he views the GCGOP’s resistance to the old guard of the state party as an equally important to defeating Democrats.

“You’re seeing it on a microcosm of how you took over the Republican Party here,” Bannon said, characterizing the Palmetto State GOP’s old guard as “just controlled opposition.”

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“How did the country get like this?” Bannon asked the crowd. “You could say Biden or Obama or Hillary Clinton, but the Republican Party was just controlled opposition who just went along.”

Bannon said the situation changed when individuals realized that “the Republican party is not going to save us, Fox News is not going to save us … we have to save ourselves.”

Bannon recounted strife as MAGA disciples descended on GOP precinct meetings.

“I went to the precinct meetings and they weren’t all great, people didn’t preach and say ‘isn’t it great you’re here to empower the Republican party’ – thats when they called it the MAGA insurgency,” Bannon said.

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He then specifically praised the GCGOP for its role in that insurgency, saying “you went and said we are going to take power, and you took it.”

“They fear this… they think you could inspire a nation just like in Lexington and Concord,” Bannon added.

“And look, I read the media – you’re having fights every time you meet,” Bannon joked, “but that’s what it’s supposed to be. Do you think the patriots had a group hug every time they met?”

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Despite their disagreements Bannon said the nation’s founders “knew what they had to do, they came down to South Carolina to end this thing, right?”

“It ended in my state, the Commonwealth of Virginia, but they were pretty beat up by the time they got there, they were ready to surrender,” he said.

Bannon also teased teased a potential primary opponent for S.C. senator Lindsey Graham, who elicited the boos and jeers of the crowds when mentioned (despite a recent Trump endorsement).

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Here is Steve Bannon (@Bannons_WarRoom) in Greenville, S.C. earlier this week hinting at a possible primary challenge of @LindseyGrahamSC… who could it be? Stay tuned… #SCPolitics #Senate2026 pic.twitter.com/B6h1qqZQ8C

— FITSNews (@fitsnews) April 16, 2025

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To the frustration of many MAGA stalwarts, Trump has also repeatedly endorsed multiple other Palmetto State politicos tacitly or explicitly targeted in Bannon’s speech – including McKissick and status quo governor Henry McMaster.

While Graham, McMaster and McKissick are unlikely to ever please Bannon and other MAGA disciples, Trump has repeatedly demonstrated a value for personal political loyalty that supersedes idealogical purity, a quid-pro-quo that has helped all three win re-election to office.

Bannon concluded his speech by rousing the crowd to “Fight, Fight, Fight,”… something history indicates Greenville GOP members are likely to continue to do.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR …

(Via: Travis Bell)

Dylan Nolan is the director of special projects at FITSNews. He graduated from the Darla Moore school of business in 2021 with an accounting degree. Got a tip or story idea for Dylan? Email him here. You can also engage him socially @DNolan2000.

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