Public tiff doesn’t involve the hardline Freedom Caucus this time
By Seanna Adcox
SCDailyGazette.com
COLUMBIA — South Carolina’s 2025 legislative session hasn’t even started, and Republican leaders are already at odds with each other.
Rep. John McCravy, who leads the Legislature’s socially conservative Family Caucus, asked Thursday to be moved off the powerful House Judiciary Committee — which vets many of the bills on his caucus’ agenda — after he lost his role leading a subcommittee.
The highly unusual request came a day after House Speaker Murrell Smith doled out committee assignments for the coming session, which kept McCravy on the same committee he’s sat on since first winning office in 2016.
But after House Judiciary met Wednesday to pick officers, newly re-elected Chairman Weston Newton of Bluffton informed McCravy he’d no longer lead a subcommittee.
McCravy, the newly elected second vice-chairman, decided he’d rather move to another committee altogether, since he and Newton clearly “can’t see eye-to-eye on policy,” the Greenwood Republican told the S.C. Daily Gazette.
“We’ve obviously had open disagreements on the floor for years on policy. It’s nothing personal,” McCravy said. “We just had some irreconcilable differences. … I want to go where I can be effective.”
McCravy, one of the Legislature’s staunchest abortion foes, was more critical in his resignation letter posted on social media. In it, he accused Newton, who became chairman two years ago, of shifting the committee’s focus from anti-crime and anti-abortion proposals to legislation “designed to erode the family.”
“I have come to recognize that my perspective on key issues and values differs significantly from your approach as chairman,” McCravy wrote.
While the letter itself doesn’t specify what he’s referring to, McCravy publicly argued with Newton last session on legislation creating a legal way for South Carolinians to bet on horse races, which passed the House and died in the Senate. They also sparred over several proposals involving alcohol sales — what McCravy calls a “push for 24/7 alcohol.”
In 2023, they fought over what Newton called an “anti-chug law” that allowed travelers to drink a cocktail inside an airport terminal without staying close to a bartender.
In a theatrical floor debate in February, they took opposing sides on a bill allowing home deliveries and curbside pickups of alcohol. As evidence that alcohol deliveries already happen without regulation, Newton came to the podium with a cardboard box and pulled out a bottle of bourbon he said he easily shipped to his office.
The House passed the bill — for a second time — over McCravy’s objections that it would make alcohol more accessible, but it again died in the Senate. During the debate, McCravy accused Newton of doing the business of special interests, which he vehemently denied.
But none of that came up Wednesday, Newton told the S.C. Daily Gazette.
“We had no discussion about policy whatsoever,” Newton said about their conversation after the meeting. And “there was no philosophical discussion.”
He just wanted five other subcommittee chairmen, and that’s his prerogative as the committee’s leader, he said.
McCravy said he gets that. “He has a right to put people in who will follow him. That’s his right,” he said. “I’m just asking to go where I can be effective.”
But it’s unclear where — or even if — he’ll be transferred.
Only the House speaker can make committee reassignments. Newton could only “reluctantly agree” to accept McCravy’s resignation as second vice-chairman of Judiciary, leaving McCravy with no leadership role on the committee at all if he stays.
As of Friday morning, Smith had not responded to McCravy’s request, which came after the speaker’s biennial reshuffling of committees. This year, those decisions involved assignments for 19 freshmen.
The only open spot across committees is on what’s known as 3M: Medical, Military, Public and Municipal Affairs.
That’s because there is one vacancy in the chamber after former Rep. Marvin Pendarvis won re-election as the only person on the November ballot for his North Charleston seat, despite resigning from office months earlier. After the election, the Democrat declined the seat he won by default.
The non-powerful 3M committee was traditionally the only one allowed to be chaired by a Democrat following Republicans’ post-1994-election control of the chamber. That changed two years ago, after the House gained a supermajority of Republicans, and Sylleste Davis of Moncks Corner became its chairwoman.
“If the speaker decided to send me to 3M, I’d be thrilled about that,” McCravy told the Gazette.
Whatever happens, he said, he remains committed to the majority GOP agenda, saying the disagreement is not a further splintering of the caucus.
“I plan to support it 100%, and I certainly as chairman of the Family Caucus will also be fighting for legislation to protect the family,” McCravy said.
The last two years has seen an escalation in public Republican infighting between the uber-conservative Freedom Caucus and the majority Republicans. On Tuesday, House Speaker Pro Tem Tommy Pope of York urged all sides to stop the sniping on social media.
Ultimately, the public kerfuffle over subcommittee chairmen has no impact on what gets done in the chamber, Newton said.
“I understand his frustration. John and I have always worked together, and we’ll continue to do so,” he said. “This is about who’s going to be in subcommittee chairs. It doesn’t have bearing on any legislation of any kind.”
Seanna Adcox is a South Carolina native with three decades of reporting experience. She joined States Newsroom in September 2023 after covering the S.C. Legislature and state politics for 18 years. Her previous employers include The Post and Courier and The Associated Press. S.C. Daily Gazette is part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization.
