By Abraham Kenmore
SCDailyGazette.com
COLUMBIA — Republican Duke Buckner is trying to convince voters of South Carolina’s 6th Congressional District that it’s time for a change after 32 years.
“Do you want more of the same, or do you want better?” Buckner asked about 30 people who attended his town hall event Wednesday to hear from the man challenging U.S. Rep. Jim Clyburn.
Buckner, a 51-year-old attorney, is challenging South Carolina’s senior congressman for the second time. He lost in 2022 by about 24 percentage points. Clyburn, who turned 84 last month, is expected to cruise to a 17th term in the House representing the Palmetto State’s only safe Democratic seat.
Beyond differences in their ages and politics, the two hail from different parts of the state. Buckner lives in Walterboro, where he was born, raised and elected to town council for one term. Clyburn, a native of Sumter — just outside the district — lives in Columbia.
The 6th District runs from Columbia south to Charleston and extends from rural counties on the state’s southern border with Georgia to rural Williamsburg County in the Pee Dee.
Since the Legislature’s post-1990-census redistricting, the 6th has been drawn as South Carolina’s lone majority-minority district, though the state’s growing population is changing the composition.
But it is still among the poorest congressional districts in the country, and Buckner tells voters he can turn it around economically.
“The issues are the economy, crime and education,” Buckner told the S.C. Daily Gazette following his event at the Richland County Adult Activity Center. “And I have a path, a plan that will help to improve those three.”
Clyburn declined Thursday to address his opponent’s campaign.
Buckner’s policy goals include cutting corporate tax rates for businesses that hire a certain number of people. He didn’t specify how many. He also wants to eliminate the federal Department of Education and send the money to state education agencies, amend the U.S. Constitution to require Congress to balance the federal budget, and guarantee free medical care to every pregnant woman.
For nearly two hours Wednesday, Buckner fielded questions and comments from attendees on questions of policy and his own personal history.
Buckner said he was a Democrat for years. When he wanted to vote for third-party presidential candidate Ross Perot in 1992, his father told him to vote for Democrat Bill Clinton instead, and he did.
But he left the Democratic Party after meeting then-Gov. David Beasley at the 1997 dedication of the Tuskegee Airmen Monument in Walterboro. Buckner said he was later invited to a Republican Party meeting and discovered he agreed with the principles of self-reliance and entrepreneurship captured in the state GOP creed.
And now Buckner is hoping to convince other voters to break away from old patterns of voting.
“Vote for the person who you believe is going to best represent your ideals and who’s going to get the job done,” he said during the town hall. “Mr. Clyburn has had 32 years to get the job done for the 6th Congressional District. Whatever he has done, he has done. It is time to pass the baton.
“Joe Biden did it. He passed it,” Buckner said.
Following Biden’s July 21 withdrawal from the presidential race, Buckner wrote a lengthy opinion piece calling on Clyburn to follow the Biden’s example and criticizing Clyburn for his continued support of the president he helped put in the White House.
Asked how his campaign will win Black voters, Buckner, who is Black, said he has volunteers for a ground game of knocking on doors and making phone calls. He also plans to pay for advertising on television, radio and social media.
According to the latest federal disclosures, Clyburn had $1.9 million in his campaign account June 30, compared to $45,000 in Buckner’s account following his June primary win against Republican Justin Scott of Walterboro. No Democrat challenged Clyburn.
Some attendees of Buckner’s town hall were strong supporters already.
Tracy Robins, 53, a former public school teacher, is involved with the organization Richland County Conservatives. She is knocking on doors for Buckner and other local candidates. She estimated putting 3,000 campaign hangers on doors already.
“I’m for small government. I want to cut budgets, cut the spending, cut the wasteful spending,” said Robins. “I’m less interested in the social issues. I’m kind of moderate when it comes to that.”
Anna Herron, a 26-year-old business analyst, is also involved with Richland County Conservatives. She said she still had questions after hearing Buckner’s answers about reducing spending, including his proposal to re-allocate federal spending on education rather than cutting it.
“Spend the taxpayer money on the essential governmental responsibilities,” she said. “Roads, defense — I don’t know of any others.”
Others were simply curious. Marah Grant, a 23-year-old media coordinator for a magazine, said she is a Democrat but wants to see change.
“I like everything that (Buckner is) saying. I agree with a lot of it,” she said after the town hall.
Abraham Kenmore is a reporter covering elections, health care and more. He joins the S.C. Daily Gazette from The Augusta Chronicle, where he reported on Georgia legislators, military and housing issues.
S.C. Daily Gazette is part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization.
