By Delayna Earley
The Island News
Beaufort played host last week to Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff at a local business in downtown Beaufort and at the historic Old Grace A.M.E. Church as he campaigned for his wife, Vice President Kamala Harris, and President Joe Biden.
Emhoff began his day on Thursday, Jan. 11, 2024, by visiting Good Aura, a boutique on West Street in downtown Beaufort that specializes in sustainable women’s clothing and gifts, according to their website.
Good Aura is owned by Melinda Hendrickson, also the chair of Families Against Book Banning (FABB), a group that has been advocating against banning books in Beaufort County since a list of 97 books were removed from Beaufort County School District (BCSD) libraries in October 2022 so that they could go through a review process.
In addition to perusing Hendrickson’s store, Emhoff spoke with her and other members of the FABB Board of Directors about what they are doing.
“We started talking about the book bans and what happened here locally in Beaufort County,” Hendrickson said. “We also shared with him how we have progressed and how now we are really fighting at the state level.”
Hendrickson said that he encouraged them to get everyone out to vote.
The following day, on Jan. 12, he made a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, about his visit to Good Aura and meeting the all-female board of FABB.
“We can’t allow MAGA Republicans to ban books and prevent the teaching of America’s full and true history,” Emhoff’s post said.
Following his trip to Good Aura, Emhoff made his way over to Old Grace A.M.E Church on Charles Street.
There, Emhoff spoke before a packed room about the Biden-Harris ticket and how they are in a fight for the “soul of our nation.”
President Biden and Vice President Harris are running mostly unopposed in South Carolina, but they have taken to touring the state with help from family and friends to get people out to vote in the Democratic primary on Feb. 3, 2024.
Biden spoke at Mother Emanuel A.M.E Church in Charleston on Monday, Jan. 8, which is where nine black parishioners were shot and killed by a white man during their Bible study in 2015, and Harris spoke in Myrtle Beach at the annual retreat at the 7th Episcopal District A.M.E Church Women’s Missionary Society in Myrtle Beach on Saturday, Jan. 6.
This was the first stop for Emhoff on the campaign trail.
“Our freedom, our democracy. It’s on the ballot,” Emhoff said to the media following his appearance at Old Grace A.M.E. Church.
S.C. House Representative Michael Rivers introduced Emhoff and said he agreed with a lot of what he had to say, but the most important message was the need to get out and vote.
“If you do not vote, you lose your right to complain if you don’t like what is happening in government,” Rivers said.
Following his appearance in Beaufort, Emhoff traveled to Charleston and spoke there, as well.
Delayna Earley formerly worked as a photojournalist for The Island Packet/The Beaufort Gazette, as well as newspapers in Indiana and Virginia. She can be reached at delayna.theislandnews@gmail.com.
