Vice President JD Vance Coming To South Carolina

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U.S. vice president JD Vance is traveling to South Carolina this week with Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) administrator Lee Zeldin.

Vance and Zeldin will visit Nucor Steel‘s manufacturing facility in Huger, S.C. this Thursday (May 1, 2025), per a release from the administration of U.S. president Donald Trump.

“Vice president Vance and administrator Zeldin will deliver remarks highlighting America’s manufacturing renaissance during the first 100 days of the Trump administration,” the advisory for the appearance noted.

Nucor Steel – headquartered in Charlotte, N.C. – employs an estimated 1,000 workers and 350 contractors at its facility in Berkeley County, S.C. Last spring, the company announced the launch of a new line which would enable it to hire another 50 workers.

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Nucor opened its Berkeley County facility in 1996. The company broke into the steel industry in South Carolina more than sixty years ago when it purchased a Vulcraft facility in Florence. In 1969, it opened a steel mill in Darlington which currently employs nearly 500 people.

Trump’s administration has taken steps it believes will protect those positions – and, ideally, add to their ranks.

In February, Trump signed a proclamation reinstating a 25% tariff on imported steel – similar to the tariff he imposed during his first term as president.

“Foreign nations have been flooding the United States market with cheap steel and aluminum, often subsidized by their governments,” Trump noted. “These measures were remarkably effective in supporting recovery and reinvestment in the American steel industry.”

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While Vance’s visit isn’t political in nature, the fact he is paying an early visit to early-voting South Carolina – home of the 2028 ‘First in the South’ presidential primary – isn’t lost on anyone.

Trump won the South Carolina primary in 2016 and again in 2024 – decisively defeating former S.C. governor Nikki Haley in her own backyard. The primary was cancelled by the SCGOP in 2020 even though Trump faced token opposition from another former Palmetto State governor, Mark Sanford.

That move wound up being a major political miscalculation by Trump supporters, however.

Initial polling has Vance positioned as the runaway frontrunner for the Republican presidential nomination in 2028, however those numbers could look significantly different if Trump’s approval ratings continue to struggle. According to the latest rolling averages of public opinion surveys from RealClearPolitics, 46.9% of Americans view Vance unfavorably compared to 41.7% who view him favorably.

Count on FITSNews to keep our audience apprised on the latest news tied to Vance’s first visit to the Palmetto State as vice president…

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR…

Will Folks is the founding editor of the news outlet you are currently reading. Prior to founding FITSNews, he served as press secretary to the governor of South Carolina. He lives in the Midlands region of the state with his wife and eight children.

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