South Carolina Attorney General Candidate Blasted by MAGA Influencers

by DYLAN NOLAN

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The Ayatollah Khomeini wasn’t the only one on the receiving end of a MAGA barrage last weekend – South Carolina first circuit solicitor and attorney general candidate David Pascoe also came under attack, albeit one limited to the realm of social media.

Last Friday evening (February 27, 2026) MAGA-adjacent X influencers Laura Loomer and DataRepublican simultaneously blasted Pascoe to their social media audiences of a combined three million followers.

The posts, which dredged up details of Pascoe’s prior support of Democratic candidates (before he converted to the GOP ahead of his 2026 campaign), racked up roughly one million combined views.

Loomer opted to go the route of wild speculation, claiming former president Joe Biden was set to have a “secret meeting” with Pascoe during his recent trip to Columbia, S.C.

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During that trip, Biden was videotaped mumbling a response to a pro-Palestinian protester while on a commercial flight into the Columbia Metropolitan Airport – and was subsequently taped forgetting how to use a cell phone directly after departing.

What’s the point of taking a meeting, secret or otherwise, if you won’t remember having taken the meeting twenty minutes after its conclusion?

Also, Pascoe was scheduled to speak at the other end of the state during Biden’s recent South Carolina visit.

This isn’t the first time Palmetto State political operators have tapped MAGA fire-breathers to do their dirty work. Just last year, Donald Trump Jr. and a cavalcade of other MAGA media personalities rained down coordinated social media hellfire on attempts to enact tort reform legislation.

The paid offensive worked, too, as the tort bill was thoroughly watered down in the S.C. Senate.

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Awkward scene in South Carolina: Joe Biden steps off the plane, grabs a disabled woman’s phone, then freezes on camera until a staffer rushes in to handle it.pic.twitter.com/MrP9PsAMiB

— Brandon Straka #WalkAway (@BrandonStraka) February 27, 2026

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While Loomer’s allegation of a secret meeting appears to be baseless, DataRepublican did his homework and brought receipts in a multi-post thread that documented Pascoe’s Democratic past.

The post noted Pascoe’s support of Democrats dating back to 2012, when he told The State newspaper he was campaigning for Barrack Obama in North Carolina. It also noted his hosting of both Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden in 2016 and 2020 at his annual oyster roast and fish fry in Orangeburg S.C.

DataRepublican even cited our media outlet’s 2021 reporting on Pascoe’s ‘Blue Slip’ problem, in which we described Pascoe as “Biden’s favorite for U.S. attorney in South Carolina,” but noted he would likely fail to obtain the necessary ‘blue slips’ of approval from the Palmetto State’s U.S. Senators, thus blocking his nomination from advancing through the Senate judiciary committee.

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"He is the most decent man I have ever met in American politics."

That's what David Pascoe said about Joe Biden in January 2020.

He is now running for SC Attorney General as a Republican. pic.twitter.com/Yt6Mvfliph

— DataRepublican (small r) (@DataRepublican) February 27, 2026

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In the wake of the social media attacks, Pascoe was quick to reference his history of public corruption prosecutions – and his recent support of a bill filed by state representative Joe White which would end the state’s current four-year statute of limitations on public corruption charges.

Pascoe is the only state-level prosecutor to successfully pursue a public corruption case – which he did during the ‘Probegate‘ criminal inquiries during the late 2010’s.

“During the corruption probe we encountered countless delays that prevented us from any prosecutions – or almost any prosecutions – of illegal lobbying,” Pascoe said during a press conference unveiling the bill, adding that prosecutors “had a huge problem, the statute of limitations had run or was about to run on every single one of those cases.”

In a guest column sent to FITSNews Pascoe linked his support of White’s bill to the attacks launched on social media soon thereafter.

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Pascoe alleged his South Carolina political rivals paid “national influencers to attack me (sic) within hours of Thursday’s press conference.”

Pascoe characterized the attacks as a way for the state’s “trial lawyer uni-party” to eliminate an existential threat to their hegemonic control of Palmetto politics.

“Republicans do not control South Carolina. Democrats do not control South Carolina,” Pascoe argued. “The trial lawyer uni-party controls South Carolina.”

Pascoe named his rival in the attorney general’s race – state senator Stephen Goldfinch – as the trial lawyer’s candidate of choice, and identified political consultant Chris Slick as their attack dog. He also stated Goldfinch’s candidacy was backed by $2 million in support from the trial lawyer lobby.

“They are pouring nearly $2 million behind Stephen Goldfinch because they know he will not threaten their model,” Pascoe wrote.

In his guest column, Pascoe claimed Slick texted him on the evening of the social media blitzkrieg “basically taking credit on behalf of the trial lawyers and promising more attacks.” According to Pascoe, Slick said he would make him “pay” and was “coming after me.”

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RELATED | A MACHINE BUILT ON MONEY AND INTIMIDATION

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FITSNews asked Slick if he had a hand in commissioning the broadside against Pascoe. He responded that he not only had no role in the attack, but had provided legislative advice to Pascoe at the solicitor’s request.

“This is a baseless accusation,” Slick said. “At the request of David Pascoe, I have worked to assist him in crafting anti corruption legislation.”

Slick emphatically denied having paid Loomer or other influencers to attack Pascoe.

“I have never talked with Laura Loomer or anyone on her staff in my entire life,” Slick said.

Goldfinch also denied commissioning the attack – or knowing who did – and went on the offensive in an interview with FITSNews rebutting the attacks leveled against him in Pascoe’s guest column.

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Goldfinch torched the notion that Pascoe is an enemy of the trial lawyers, pointing to Pascoe’s most recent fundraising haul.

“David Pascoe raised $86,000 from trial lawyers in (the fourth quarter of 2025),” Goldfinch said. “Just last quarter he had the biggest fundraiser he’s ever had from Morgan and Morgan in Jacksonville, Florida, which is the biggest plaintiff’s trial lawyer firm in the nation.”

Goldfinch pointed to Pascoe’s having raised over $200,000 from trial lawyers throughout his campaign – adding that much of that fundraising was done alongside former Democrat senator and state party chairman Dick Harpootlian.

“Are we not supposed to believe that he’s still attached to the Democratic party at the hip, when Dick Harpootlian drives him around, when Dick Harpootlian raises money for him, when Dick Harpootlian puts together fundraisers with the biggest trial lawyer firm in the nation,” Goldfinch asked. “That’s not just laughable, but sad.”

He also expressed his doubts that Pascoe would exercise his authority as attorney general to sue a future Democrat presidential administration.

“It’s pretty scary, especially if we wind up with a Gavin Newsom or Kamala Harris in 2028, it’s pretty scary what David Pascoe could accomplish – or would not accomplish on behalf of the State of South Carolina,” Goldfinch said.

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Pascoe has spent years relentlessly touring the Palmetto State – speaking to dozens of county GOP organizations even before he was a member of the Republican party. In those addresses, he spoke about the need to reform South Carolina’s ineffective and at times corrupt judicial system – policy positions which have endeared him to many of the state’s most most vocal conservative grassroots activists.

Greenville County Republican Party chairman Jeff Davis sprung to Pascoe’s defense in posts replying to Loomer and DataRepublican.

“David Pascoe is not just telling us what we want to hear, he has actually done it with the 2013-2021 corruption probe against Republicans and Democrats,” Davis said. “The sad part is other establishment ‘Republican’ candidates for attorney general are not even trying to say what we want to hear as they are known as just more of the same old same old.”

Dorchester County GOP chairman CJ Westfall similarly played down the attack on Pascoe noting, “you can pay Laura Loomer to say literally anything.”

Pascoe himself pointed to president Donald Trump‘s years spent in the Democratic party as evidence that past party affiliation doesn’t preclude one from scoring conservative victories later in their political career.

“It’s pretty wild that liberal Senator Goldfinch doesn’t think Donald Trump should be president just because he was a Democrat and supported Democrats,” Pascoe told FITSNews.

While the recent online attacks leveled against Pascoe can likely be dismissed as pay-to-play politics, Goldfinch is giving us a preview of the criticisms he is likely to face in the coming months as traditional Republican candidates seek to discredit Pascoe in the eyes of the GOP primary voters who will determine the Palmetto State’s next attorney general.

Partisan primary elections in South Carolina are scheduled for June 9, 2026. In the event no candidate wins a majority of votes on the first ballot – which is a likelihood in the governor’s race – a head-to-head runoff between the top two vote-getters would be held two weeks later (on June 23, 2026). As noted, the GOP primary is the race to watch in South Carolina, as Democrats haven’t won a gubernatorial election since 1998 – and haven’t won a statewide election since 2006.

Count on FITSNews to continue to track the ongoing developments in this and other races in the Crossroads 2026 midterm elections…

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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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