♪ opening music ♪ ♪ Welcome to This Week in South Carolina.

I'm Gavin Jackson.

This week, we're recapping the 2024 Republican presidential primary here in South Carolina and also looking at the statehouse.

To do that, I have AP national politics reporter Meg Kinnard and statehouse reporter with South Carolina Public Radio, Maayan Schechter with me.

Y'all, welcome.

Welcome.

Meg> Thanks for having us back.

Gavin> Meg's first time on set.

Meg> So good to be here on set.

It's lovely.

So, Meg, I want to start with you.

Let's talk about the First in the South primary.

We've been covering this for what seems like years now, and it finally came down to it on Saturday.

We saw former President Donald Trump easily win, as predicted, beating former Governor Nikki Haley by 20 points or so.

You were there with the Nikki Haley watch party.

Tell me about your big takeaways from that night.

Meg> Essentially, the numbers that we all saw, that's kind of what we expected.

This sort of range of Donald Trump getting about 60.

Nikki Haley getting about 40.

That had been forecast.

And so that was sort of in our minds.

I think that, too, leading into that, the voters that we talked to and kind of hearing from them, a lot of people super supportive of Donald Trump, but then having some concerns among some of those GOP voters of the swirling legal situations or what have you.

And then also coupled with that, Nikki Haley being this homegrown candidate, that's always been the factor of how much will that really affect her result?

And I think from those numbers we could ascertain, there was still some support for Nikki Haley in her home state.

But also understanding what we do about the numbers of new South Carolinians who were here since she was governor, kind of not really the overwhelming sort of numbers for her that some may be outside of South Carolina without the institutional knowledge of really what's been happening here for the last decade, maybe would have assumed her number would be higher.

I think the end result is pretty much where we expected it to be.

Gavin> Meg, when we talk about that, we talk about your home state as a presidential candidate, not winning that state.

Obviously, things have changed since Donald Trump has gotten into the political arena.

Does it matter as much these days when you don't win your home state like that?

We didn't see her drop out.

She already kind of massaged the messaging going into Saturday with her big speech on that Tuesday saying, I'm going to stay in throughout, you know, whatever happens in South Carolina, on to Super Tuesday.

So doesn't seem to matter as much losing your home state.

Meg> I think it is a different calculus when your home state is one of those early ones.

And clearly when Chris Sununu had been thinking about getting into the race, being the governor of New Hampshire, we had that conversation all over again of, wow, he's from one of these early states.

How will that really play?

But two, I think like you know with Governor Haley's big speech of it doesn't really matter what happens here, I'm casting forward anyway.

I've already got these plans into Michigan and the Super Tuesday states.

We didn't have any concerns there was going to be this last minute sort of drop out moment from her.

But two it really starts to add up and see with Donald Trump so far his dominance in this race, she's getting some delegate.

Sure.

And some support.

But at what point is that really kind of a make or break moment to consider moving forward and, you know, pushing this campaign even further out?

She's still in it for now.

But, you know, Super Tuesday is not too far away.

Gavin> Yeah, we're certainly getting to that point.

Maayan, you covered some Trump activity before and we're also in Columbia on election night with his watch party's victory party.

What stood out to you from that event?

AP called that at like 7 seconds after seven o'clock.

Meg> 7:00pm (Laughs) Gavin> Polls, right after polls closed.

You were there.

He was on stage within minutes.

Like we were like, okay, like we are off and running.

What was it like out there?

He had a lot of people on stage with him, too.

Maayan> Well, it was probably the shortest I've ever heard former President Donald Trump speak.

It was an incredibly short event given the fact that AP called it so early.

What really stood out to me was, one, the people who were there.

It was definitely a collection of Republican voters from not necessarily Richland County, like we usually see at these Richland County Republican stops, but clearly from all over the state.

What stood out to me from the former president was when he said, we are unified.

This is a unified Republican Party.

And I'm sure as we'll talk about a little bit later.

I'm not sure if that's the right way to describe the Republican Party when there was booing at his own party event.

Then, obviously, Nikki Haley has made a case that, "No, we are not unified at all."

So that was probably the thing that stood out to me the most.

The party as, you know, quickly filtered out.

And so it was it was the shortest celebratory party I've ever been to.

Gavin> Yeah.

He was asking Governor McMaster if he could move up Election Day, which, you know, statutorily cannot do.

Some interesting takeaways there, too.

Maayan> And he teased a little bit the shift in the turn over at the RNC.

And obviously, at one point we thought Drew McKissick might be in the running and it's not, but as chairman of the South Carolina Republican Party.

So that was another piece that stood out as well.

We got a little bit of a, of a more verbal preview of that shakeup.

Gavin> Meg, when we look at the early voting states and the polls, Trump was meant to win Iowa by, what, 53 points?

He won by 30 points, New Hampshire by 18 points.

He beat Nikki Haley there by 11 points.

And in South Carolina, he was supposed to win by 28 points, won by 20.

You were in Michigan where he again, was supposed to win by 62 points and he was up by 42.

So are these warning signs for Donald Trump like we're talking about party unification.

He's talking about the party being unified.

Clearly, there's not party affiliation.

Obviously, as we get closer to a general election, everyone's supposed to come together and kumbaya.

But what about right now?

What we're seeing?

Meg> Those Are certainly some of the arguments that his supporters and surrogates are making, that the longer that Nikki Haley stays in this race, the more harmful that is for the overall Republican effort going into the general election campaign.

Donald Trump - Sure, he was talking about unity or at least sounding more like unity in South Carolina.

That's not the message that we heard after New Hampshire.

And so I don't think that we can necessarily say he is full on the unity train at this point since there's been a little bit of undulation.

But certainly from the Trump campaign's point of view, it would be better at this point if they were able to have the muscle of more of these "also rans" from the primary contest to include Nikki Haley, they would hope to get behind him and say, this is what we're doing for the general election.

Let's just focus on Joe Biden.

Let's focus on getting the Democrat out of office.

But I think that from those numbers, certainly polling is only a snapshot and we say that all the time.

But when you think about what it's perhaps forecast or thought of, that Trump would be giving these sort of margins in these primary contests.

And then the margins haven't been quite as big.

That could indicate a lot of things.

But one of them could be the theoretical notion when you ask a voter, hey, who are you thinking about supporting in this election?

And then it actually coming down to that date, either them not showing up or perhaps changing their mind, last minute.

Voters can do whatever they want to.

So I think there could be some of that at play.

Clearly, we don't know exactly how much, but on behalf of the Trump campaign, they would certainly love to see those margins being even bigger and also have more of that certainty heading into the general election that voters are really, really standing behind him.

Gavin> And on Super Tuesday, we're going to see a lot of open primaries, too, like South Carolina, where you can have Democrats crossover.

You can talk about the voting numbers in a moment.

But...it will be interesting to see that because, you know, Michigan, I think we were so focused on New Hampshire, Iowa, South Carolina.

And then when you get to like the wide open areas where they haven't spent so much time, it's interesting to see what those margins are really looking like.

Meg> Certainly.

And Donald Trump has been to Michigan multiple times since his 2015-2016 campaign up until now.

Nikki Haley really only started showing up there.

She announced her leadership team and has done some on the ground stuff, which I saw.

There were plenty of volunteers and structural pieces to those events that she was putting on there.

But if you're looking at voters and, we talk to voters all the time who really like to see candidates in person.

If that's a factor for a lot of these people, hearing that message up close and personal and they haven't been able to do it until right before they were able to vote.

That may factor into it a little bit, too.

Gavin> Since you were on the ground in Michigan, Meg, what was it like?

Was pretty similar to what you saw in Iowa, what you see in South Carolina in terms of turnout and enthusiasm?

Meg> There was a lot of enthusiasm, I will say.

I walked into one of these ballrooms and that pre rally playlist was not blaring at me.

There was an acoustic duo up there playing guitar and it was great.

But I was like, Oh, am I in the right spot?

But from the voters I talked to and certainly the overall atmosphere, there was a lot of excitement, enthusiasm.

But also I talked to plenty of voters who were like, Yeah, I'm here to check her out and I like what she's doing.

I really like the message that she has.

But if she can't do it, I'm cool with voting for Donald Trump in November, too.

So they wanted to make their voice known at this point to back somebody else.

But plenty of those voters seemed ready to support him in November.

Gavin> Maayan, I want to go back to election night here in Columbia.

You were at the Trump watch party, victory party.

And we were just talking about party unity.

And you were mentioning a little about who was on stage with the former president, his entire, you know, executive team from South Carolina, which is all these statewide elected officials.

You've got the governor, lieutenant governor, the senators up there.

But you also had different reactions to folks, too.

You know, people were really enthusiastic about people like Tim Scott.

But then you get to Lindsey Graham, who Trump said was left of him.

You know, no one wants to be introduced as to the left at a Republican event, even though Graham isn't you know...

He works with Democrats, but he's not to the left.

Tell us about those reactions and maybe something about, you know, Senator Tim Scott, who's on the shortlist for VP.

Maayan> You know, Senator Lindsey Graham did not get a great set up by the former president on election night.

There was a sustained boo.

I mean, as you all know, having covered other events where Lindsey Graham has.

Gavin and Meg> Right.

Maayan> People boo Lindsey Graham all the time, he still wins reelection.

But this was a sustained boo.

The real loudest boos were for Drew McKissick, the chair of the South Carolina Republican party.

Gavin>...Drew, they were saying boo.

Maayan> I don't think so.

Or like Dawn Staley's version of boo.

(laughing) No...this was this was a very loud boo and it really represented the as you all know, the sort of intraparty dueling factions within the Republican Party that are existing right now on the grassroots level like county parties, and then the state legislature.

That stood out.

I think actually the person who probably had the loudest applause was Congressman Matt Gaetz when he stepped forward, I mean, opposite of the sustained boos, this was a sustained applause.

I think people did applaud loudly.

Tim Scott, obviously, on the VP potential picking list.

But he didn't really give very long remarks at all.

Gavin> Everyone was really quick.

Maayan> Yeah.

So I don't think the crowd really got a lot out of him that night as opposed to other events that he's spoken at.

Those were probably the things that stood out the most.

Gavin> Yeah, He had Marjorie Taylor Greene there too.

Maayan> Right, in the back.

Gavin> Congressional people from all over.

But, Meg, we're talking about Drew McKissick, the state party chairman.

He's now the former national RNC co-chair.

There's a lot of shakeup going on with the party leadership.

What are the latest movements there?

We did see Michael Whatley, who was NC GOP chairman at that Trump event, too.

We were talking about that.

Trump even mentioned Kellyanne Conway for something, being part of the RNC.

Meg> Maybe being part of that group.

Gavin> Yeah.

What's going on with the RNC at this point?

Meg> Ronna McDaniel has announced that she officially does plan to step down and the RNC rules say that they can't really choose officially the next leader of the party until they have a meeting.

And so the next one of those is set for later on this spring.

So she has made what we anticipated would be her intention.

She's made those known publicly now.

And with Donald Trump having said that, he would like Michael Whatley to lead the RNC, he would also like his daughter in law, Lara Trump, to come in as national co-chair.

Party rules say that those two offices need to be occupied by people of opposite gender.

So a man and a woman or a woman and a man.

And so that is part of why Drew McKissick was stepping down in terms of his national co-chair role.

Obviously, we anticipate that he'll continue to be involved at the party at a very high level, especially with South Carolina still having this first in the south kind of primary status.

But this is the consolidation.

This is what is typical for campaigns to really once the the leading nominee really is, becomes known in a cycle, we anticipate that there will be some influence from that candidate, from that perhaps future presumptive nominee to bring in some people that they would like to be working on the party.

And with Chris LaCivita who's been running Trump's campaign, coming in to manage the day to day operations, that's also part of the plan.

So this is not unprecedented, but it is early for this to be happening before Donald Trump has secured even remotely close to the number of delegates he would need to be to officially be the presumptive nominee.

This is just happening earlier, but it is a signal of anticipation for the party as to where they think it's headed.

Gavin> Yeah, he'll be presumptive nominee eventually if things go the way they're supposed to go later in March, too.

But also you see people like Nikki Haley attacking the RNC, attacking the Trump campaign for saying that this is just a power play and will also be used as, you know, his own personal piggy bank, even though the RNC has about $8 million.

Meg> Right.

>> A difficult time to be wanting to lead the RNC.

I'm sure Drew McKissick is like, hey, go ahead, lead it, like nothing.

Meg> One of the things that Drew has often talked about in terms of if he were perhaps going to be stepping into one of those leadership roles is, look, I've really put the SC GOP on good financial footing.

We've had a lot of fundraising success, so I could bring that to the table and that's something that would be needed.

But Nikki Haley, you're absolutely right, has been hitting them hard on being like a slush fund or piggy bank for Donald Trump and all of his many financial needs at this point.

And she's also knocked him for putting forth a member of his family to be part of that leadership.

She's been talking about that multiple times in the closing days before South Carolina.

And still when she was on the trail in Michigan.

Gavin> Maayan, I want to talk about how big of a turnout we saw on Saturday.

Republicans had a record turnout with some 750,000 or 757,000 ballots being cast, 205,000 votes being cast early in those two weeks of the early voting period.

What were voters telling you at the polls?

Were there Democrats that crossed over, as we suspect?

Maayan> Absolutely.

I heard a lot of national issues when I was talking to voters.

The border came up consistently, but of course, each voter had their individual reason for voting.

Some cited the fentanyl crisis, others cited.

I heard student loans and Biden's forgiveness of some student loans came up.

But absolutely, they're, not only were there crossover voters from the Democratic side who just do not want to see Trump as the nominee.

And also given that the Republican contest was much more competitive than the Democratic contests, a lot of them planned to vote for Nikki Haley in the primary and then show up for Joe Biden in November.

But I talked to one couple who is voting in Richland County who showed up at the precinct to vote for Nikki Haley, but said that come November, they will hold their nose to vote for former President Donald Trump.

So everyone had different reasons for showing up.

But I consistently heard the border, the border, the border.

Governor Henry McMaster even told reporters after he voted.

That's the top issue that he's heard from other people as well.

Gavin> Yes, I mean, but also another reason why we're seeing a movement, and a push to close our primaries in South Carolina.

Those examples you just cited there, too.

And that was an advisory question on the Republican ballot.

Again, those are non-binding questions, but a lot of times lawmakers and leaders use those questions to say, hey, let's pass legislation that people want here.

Is there any update on what's going on with closing the primaries in the state?

Maayan> I mean, nothing has really moved forward.

I think we saw a debate last year very briefly on the floor.

A lot of Republican legislators are also not very supportive of closing the primaries.

Governor Henry McMaster, I think, recently told reporters himself he's not really in favor of it.

He thinks the party is growing really well because we have open primaries.

So he threw cold water on that.

And that is a former chairman of the South Carolina Republican Party.

I definitely think the debate is going to come up again on the floor at some point, whether in the House or the Senate.

This is an election year, of course, It's a popular election piece to talk about.

But will it go anywhere?

I have no idea.

Gavin> Yeah, Megan, kind of along those lines, when we're talking about Democrats voting for Nikki Haley, which would be the strongest contender based on polls and hypothetical matchups for Joe Biden this fall.

But then also I was talking to Scott Huffmon about this.

It's more of a short term you know, play, versus the long term there.

So what did you hear from voters, too?

What were people telling you about how they were voting?

Meg> A lot of similar things to what Maayan just voiced, these people who opposed Donald Trump perhaps, and wanted to go ahead and voice that opposition now.

And this was their opportunity to do that because these early primaries, because perhaps they opted not to participate in the Democratic primary a couple of weeks back and they could go ahead and just say, it makes me feel better and I can join the people who are in formal opposition to him.

And just as many people you run into.

And they're like, well, yes, I like Nikki Haley.

I really like what she has to say.

Maybe I was here when she was governor or not.

Who knows!

But ultimately, I'm a Republican, and so I can see myself voting for the nominee.

She herself has said that she would support the nominee in the general election, as was contingent on anybody participating in those GOP primary debates.

But voters at least some of them, are like, well, that's more ideologically where I match up.

Perhaps I'll hold my nose or maybe I'll stay home.

I heard that from plenty of people, too.

Don't know how much that actually makes a difference in things, but at least it is on people's minds right now.

In early 2024, November is still a long way away.

Gavin> Yeah, enthusiasm should be a concern for both Republicans and Democrats this fall.

Meg, really quick before we go to some statehouse stuff, I want to ask you just about when you hear people talk about a third party option here, people say Nikki Haley will run for a third party.

You ask her, she's like, I'm a Republican, not interested.

So can you just kind of again re-emphasize that.

Meg> Yeah, I mean, there's a bunch of different theories as to what is going to happen if her candidacy does end before the nomination, if she doesn't end up on the ticket.

But there's the "No Labels" effort, which is still alive and plans to have a convention later this year.

And some of its leaders, including Joe Cunningham, former candidate for governor here and former congressman, has said, yeah, we'd be totally open to talking to Nikki Haley.

And she's like, nope, I'm a Republican.

The only way that I would like to run for president.

So that theory is out there.

I don't think that she is interested in it for sure.

But when you look at the kind of candidacy that no label seems to be looking for and ideologically where she falls and where a lot of her support falls, it makes sense to me that they would be courting her, but at least at this point, she's like, Nope, no, thank you.

Gavin> And when we look at congressional primaries, I know you'll probably be on the campaign trail, the presidential campaign trail longer than the rest of us.

When we look at the June primaries for here in South Carolina, we look at congressional districts.

There's going be a lot going on in the upstate, but the biggest one we're all going to be paying attention to is the 1st congressional district down there in the Low country with Nancy Mace, the incumbent down there.

And I wonder what you discern from what happened with her congressional district going for Nikki Haley, the only district out of the seven going for Haley.

So she got three delegates out of that.

What does that mean for Nancy Mace in her messaging and what she needs to do going forward?

Obviously, not the "Trump-iest" District, if it's going for Nikki Haley.

Meg> It's the first, remains one of the more interesting ones, because it has been Democratic in recent cycles and it's gone back to being Republican.

And now with Nancy Mace seeking reelection, also having endorsed former President Donald Trump, him not directly endorsing her quite yet and she does have some primary competition, perhaps in the form of her former chief of staff, but also Catherine Templeton, who ran for governor in 2018 and has been a feature in South Carolina's Republican politics.

Catherine Templeton, along with Nancy Mace, was at one of Donald Trump's rallies here in South Carolina before the primary.

So she is supportive of him as well.

So the Trump factor and how much that really does play into the first District is going to be interesting.

But it is that "swing-iest" district that we have in terms of Republicans down here for sure.

Gavin> Yeah, we need to see what the US Supreme Court rules on that map too, because that's still... We heard arguments up there, at the Supreme Court in October, We're still waiting that decision with the map actually what it's going to look like.

It's getting a little bit late in the game.

Meg> Nothing like deadlines.

Gavin> Meg, really quick before going to the statehouse, what's Nikki Haley's move going forward?

You know, she talks about, you know, this need for party unity, for how there's going to be, you know, the entire party ripped apart at the seams, if we go for, like the way we're supposed to right now.

Do you think there could be a contested convention?

But, you know, you look at the RNC the way it's going to be, what's her move after Super Tuesday?

Is there a move?

Meg> It could be possible.

I talked to other journalists about this and they're like rooting for a contested convention.

Conventions are usually not very exciting, but that certainly would be.

But for her, I asked her that on Saturday when she was casting her ballot on Kiawah, and I was like, So, you've said that you're going through Super Tuesday After that, will you have another like evaluation point where you figure out, okay, how much further I'm going to go?

And she was very clear in saying, as she has this whole time, I'm just going one state at a time.

I'm being deliberate.

That's kind of tough when you have like 15 states going all at once and then after Super Tuesday, it's pretty wide open.

But I think as long as she's getting significant fundraising enough to keep going, we will see her candidacy going forward.

But she is going to have perhaps some tough internal conversations after Super Tuesday if she isn't able to pick up any significant numbers of delegates.

Gavin> Yeah, like we said, that delegate math starts to add up.

Meg> That's right.

>> March 12th and March 15th.

So and- then also but she raised a million dollars Meg> In 24 hours.

>> After losing her home state.

So that says something.

Maayan, let's go to the state house.

When we're talking about primaries.

We're going to see all 124 House members in all, 46 state senators up for reelection this year too.

One of the more interesting Senate races were already looking at, Senate primary, I should say, is for the one that the seat that's occupied by Senator Dick Harpootlian, Nikki Seltzer's district as well, has been consolidated into one.

We're seeing Russell Ott, a Saint Matthews Democrat who's in the House challenging Dick Harpootlian for the seat.

Kind of unexpected, but it's going to be maybe one of the more interesting races to watch.

What's your take away?

Maayan> A little bit.

Yeah, This is kind of a wild card...in some ways.

And a wild card in not some ways.

Right.

So this was Nikki Seltzer's District.

He announced retirement.

You know, there are long been some rumors that Senator Dick Harpootlian wasn't going to run for reelection.

So you had some Democrats who were very interested in running, obviously, Senator Harpootlian has decided to run for that district and Russell Ott in the House, decided to be his challenger.

This is a tough race for us.

Mainly because, Calhoun...County, while it is part of this district.

I mean, it's made up of Richland County, of Lexington County.

I mean, these are entirely new areas.

When you're in a House race, that's one thing When you're running for Senate, that's thousands of new people.

So ground game like it is in every single election is really important.

Raising money is very important.

You know, part of the problem that I think Representative Ott is going to have is obviously you're not just competing against somebody with high name ID and someone who can fundraise really well.

We've already seen a list of people come out and support Senator Harpootlian for reelection.

That includes Congressman Jim Clyburn.

That's a pretty big name.

Former lawmaker, CNN contributor Bakari Sellers, Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott.

And I have a feeling that Senator Harpootlian is holding on to some of these endorsements and trickling them out as he goes.

So that is going to be a very interesting race to watch, because it is while they're both Democrats, they do have some opposing views on some policy.

And it'll be, you know, watching Harpootlian on the stump, this guy is always an interesting thing to watch.

Gavin> In fact, everybody here too.

Right.

Yeah, that doesn't hurt.

Maayan I'll stick with you and look at some big issues moving through the statehouse.

Obviously, we're coming up on March now, Sine Die last day of sessions, second Thursday in May.

Not too long from now.

I haven't been in the statehouse as much, but what's going on with some of the big bills moving forward, especially the open carry bill, Where's that right now?

Maayan> So this is probably the closest in the time that I've covered the legislature that for the first time they could actually have open carry without permit.

So constitutional carry or permitless carry actually passed, but it is being held up over differences in the House and the Senate.

So the House version was what they consider a clean version.

The Senate made some changes.

They stiffened some penalties for felons who illegally possess guns.

They added some exceptions for lawmakers, for instance, to bring guns in areas that are maybe a bit more sensitive.

Courtrooms, maybe the state house.

They also put a provision in that would allow the state, since we're taking out the training piece or the permit piece, to have some state paid training throughout South Carolina so people could still access that The ultra right or the far right conservative lawmakers in the House are not really pleased so much with this exception for lawmakers.

They consider that kind of a two tier system.

And so there is definitely some Republican versus Republican fighting over this bill.

This bill is right now in the negotiation phase between the House and the Senate.

They did meet this week.

Nothing happened, of course, because that's the way of conference committee sometimes.

But it'll be interesting to see where this goes.

I mean, Senator Shane Massey, who's the Senate majority leader, obviously has said, you know, these provisions that we tacked on were important to get this bill out of the Senate in the first place.

So if they're removed, that obviously complicates the future of it.

And meanwhile, McMaster has been very, very aggressive about wanting at least some bill to pass with this felony gun possession piece on it.

And so he's been a lot more vocal about getting something done.

So it's still again, this is a popular thing that I like to say, but it remains to be seen on this bill because we've seen efforts like this not come to fruition over slight disagreements.

And so again, and as you mentioned, session ends in May, early May.

Gavin> We got the budget to move through as well.

And that's moving in the House.

We'll see that debate happen more in mid-March.

But really quickly, Maayan, medical marijuana cleared the state Senate like it did in 2022.

It's now in the House.

It's trying to get there right before the budget starts moving.

What's the mood like in the House?

Is it going to be shot down again?

Is it going to actually have a debate?

What do you think is going to be the trajectory?

Maayan> I think there are definitely a collection of Republicans, especially because that's really where it matters.

Right.

Because they control the House and have a super majority that want to see this bill come back up and at least get a healthy debate on the floor since, as we know, the bill never made it that far last time.

But look, if that bill comes up on the floor again, there's going to be thousands of amendments that especially Representative John McCravy, who's one of the more conservative lawmakers in the House, has promised he will make sure that this debate is lengthy with a lot of proposed amendments.

The bill still hasn't come up in committee yet.

In the House, you know, one of the big differences between last time and this time is the 3M committee was run by Democrats when that bill went through.

Now it's run by Republicans.

So a completely different ball game there.

Gavin> And they took out that revenue raising factor, which was the big holdup, how the bill got killed on technicalities in the first place.

So... a lot to look forward to there.

And anything else you're watching?

30 seconds.

Maayan> Just that there's a big DHEC, yeah.

I'm sorry.

Judicial reform.

That's obviously something that's again, a big question mark.

The House leaders today proposed universal school choice bill, expanding the current law.

That's also another thing that's up in the air.

So a lot of different policies ping ponging back and forth.

Gavin> It's the last year of session,... if they don't get to the governor's desk by mid-May, like we're talking about, then we'll see you next year.

Meg> It's an election year Gavin> It is.

Oh, yeah.

Meg> All of that in there together.

Gavin> Meg with to the qualifier there.

That's AP National politics reporter Meg Kinnard and South Carolina Public Radio's Maayan Schechter Thank you.

Maayan> Thank you.

Gavin> You can always stay up to date with the latest news throughout the week by checking out the South Carolina Lede.

It's a podcast I host on Tuesdays and Saturdays that you can find on South Carolina Public Radio.org or where ever you find podcasts.

For South Carolina ETV, I'm Gavin Jackson.

Be well South Carolina.

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