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Fourth-term incumbent South Carolina “Republican” party chairman Drew McKissick – a tool of the establishment wing of the GOP – is being accused by conservative activists of rigging the vote against his rivals in this weekend’s race to lead the badly divided SCGOP.
McKissick is running for a fifth term as chairman of the state party – whose elected representatives continue to veer to the ideological left despite the best efforts of activists to hold them accountable to the party’s platform and stated principles.
McKissick narrowly won a fourth term in 2023 as rising pressure from the ideological right nearly cost him his job.
This year, it appears McKissick’s allies are leaving nothing to chance – voting overwhelmingly on Friday (May 2, 2025) to disqualify an entire county which unanimously opposed him in the hotly contested 2023 election.
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According to multiple sources familiar with the situation, the credentialing committee of the party – which is stacked with McKissick loyalists – voted 34-6 on Friday evening to disqualify all 24 delegates chosen by Pickens County Republicans.
What was their stated justification? According to the committee, the Pickens County convention was held at a venue which did not allow sufficient space for all delegates – allegedly resulting in some activists who wanted to participate in the process being turned away.
As of this writing, there are 914 credentialed delegates to the convention – meaning a candidate would need to win 458 of them to claim victory. McKissick won reelection in 2023 by a mere 16 votes.
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The 24 Pickens County delegates have reportedly been placed in a "holding room" at the Columbia Metropolitan Convention Center in downtown Columbia, S.C. - the venue where the convention is being held. They will have a chance to ask for an appeal of the credentialing committee's ruling.
"Our county was the only county last time to vote 100% against Drew McKissick and I believe we are being retaliated against because it would have most likely been the same outcome this time from our county," said Brandy Tarleton, one of the disqualified Pickens County delegates.
Conservative activists were livid at the attempt to rig the vote...
"The whole convention is corrupt," one activist told us.
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As FITSNews has meticulously chronicled over the past four years, the conservative wing of the SCGOP has been gaining ground on the establishment wing of the party - aggressively working the grassroots activists in support of a slate of leaders which more accurately reflect their views.
Clearly, the establishment has reached the point where it feels the need to cheat to win...
McKissick was supposed to have been challenged by Barbara Arthur of Hartsville, S.C., but her candidacy was ruled ineligible after she was not chosen as a delegate.
"I was not disqualified," Arthur wrote on Facebook. "I was cheated by officers of the Darlington County Republican Party and the SCGOP who rigged the delegate election process."
Arthur singled out newly elected S.C. senator JD Chaplin as one of the Darlington leaders who participated in the alleged conspiracy to keep her name off of the ballot.
"Our state party politics is more corrupt than the legislature - if that's possible," one activist noted.
County on FITSNews to keep our audience in the loop on the latest happenings at the 2025 convention...
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UPDATE |
McKissick defeated former S.C. senator Lee Bright to win a fifth, two-year term as SCGOP chairman on Saturday. The final tally was 505 votes for McKissick, 367 votes for Bright and 27 votes for Denny Floyd.
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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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6 comments
I went to my Greenwood County Republican Party Convention a few years ago and it was truly a waste of time. There was the Old Guard Faction and the “Reformers”. The Old Guard had its interests to promote and the Reformers had theirs. As a neutral attendee, I felt my presence was simply useless. The Old Guard voted for their agenda and officers and the Reformers voted for their agenda and officer candidates. There was a lot of Parliamentary procedures manuveuring and queries. Never been back. Simply would not feel welcomed when decisions had already made. Not seating an entire County delegation does not look good. I still vote Republican, but that convention got my thinking right.
what bullshit
Foghorn Leghorn SCGOP Chairman referee to MAGA America First Grassroots Conservatives as Lepers and a Dumpster Fire. Drew uses his Brown Shirts statewide to push his Fascist Propaganda that Republican Primaries are at risk. The exact opposite is true, we are trying to save Republicans Primaries by closing them. As for Barbara Arthur, I researched “Barbara Arthur” using X’s Grok 3 AI. Grok 3 did a really good job being fair to Arthur but highlighted many things Arthur needs to do before seeking the SCGOP chair again, first of which, is becoming a Delegate or Alternate at State Convention.
Lee Not So Bright? Really?
So, Drew McKissass won again. No surprise. The “establishment” Uni-party G(Greedy)O(Old)P(Patronage) is still firmly in control of the party and the statehouse. Each year they move further to the left and away from GOP principles. It is only a matter of short time until SC turns from red to purple like its neighbors to the north (No. Carolina) and to the south (Georgia).
What are examples of Drew McKissick and the current GOP establishment moving further left and away from GOP principles? I am genuinely asking.