More California love for the California Kid Jermaine Johnson. First Newsom, then Ro Khanna, now Kamala. California is really rallying for their native son.

Time for another sign war review: I give the sign putter uppers a C plus for placement and a D minus for execution. Why only a c plus for placement? Well, glad I can answer! The Tommy Carr for School Board sign is placed at an angle that very likely will block the Annie Andrews sign. Just mediocre placement. Move the Tommy Carr sign to more of a 45 degree at least. Finally, on my D minus grade for execution, look, they did technically do what they were asked to do. They replaced the Wilson and Caskey signs with Tommy Carr and Annie Andrews BUT they didn’t bother to even throw away the other signs allowing the Wilson and Caskey campaigns to put them back up. Sloppy work. So to review: C plus for placement D minus for execution Overall grade: C minus

It’s funny Johnson repeatedly talks a lot affordability and corruption picking the pockets of taxpayers but leaves out that he has perhaps the greatest champion of personal earmarks in the South Carolina house. On May 7th, 2025, Johnson offered 37 (!!!) amendments to protect the “privilege” of members of the legislature being able to offer personal earmarks for their pet projects. You can’t say you are the champion of the taxpayer when you personally fought tooth and nail to protect your ability to spend their money on whatever frivolous project you might have on your mind. PS, Johnson also offered a bill to provide taxpayer incentive for the solar industry, to which he had a company that would benefit. That’s not “new sc”. That’s just the same ole same.

Well folks, we have our answer on how much California love Johnson got from Gavin Newsom…and the results are Drum roll please…… 15 percent of his donors are from California (1,471 individual donors) 7.3 percent of his money is California ($63,066) Bonus: 57.3 percent of Johnson voters are from outside of SC (5,552)

I bet he would have at least shown up for this vote unlike the other 700 or so he missed. Odd for a guy to say he’s “in it for you” while missing or skipping votes to protect families (see his no vote on the AI/morphed image bill) or voting to allow utility companies to increase folk’s rates. But yeah, let’s trust the guy that offered over 30 amendments in a day to protect personal earmarks and offered a bill to benefit his business. Super super trustworthily.

Apparently a strong storm blew through Aiken, SC last night. Only damaged the Wilson signs oddly and blew in some others. Alert the weather authorities on this phenomenon. Hearing reports of such late night storms scattered throughout SC.

I mean, the Earmark King (See his fight to protect personal earmarks, H 4025)Johnson already voted on bills that helped pave the wave for increasing utility fees (H3309) and local road fees (S 233), but sure, he's a super fiscal hawk.. P.S. on May 6th, 2025 Johnson offered 37 unsuccessful amendments to restore personal earmarks. If that isn't a one day record, I'm not sure what is.

Wanted to make second to commend @MckoyTrevin who is helping lead the statewide Victory effort in SC. With a lot of tight races, every last call and door knock matters. Trevin, @ShuaGoodwin, @TheKarchLine, @pattonbyars did a tremendous job making lemonade out of lemons and getting near historic numbers today statewide. House caucus under @hopewalker had folks out walking in the rain all day. SCGOP chairman @DrewMcKissick and ED @leightongsmith have the counties organized like never before. When life gives you a hurricane, Trevin and the team produced a massive super Saturday. Well positioned to close in November.

Heck of an effort. Low country county parties working incredibly hard for @JennyHoneycutt and the rest of the ticket. Kudos to @MaceMcGrath and @cjwestfall for their efforts. Going to see strong numbers statewide from the victory team today.

Just got a stat from Johnson supporters (appreciate the intel!). Apparently Johnson only walked (not including absences) 623 votes (if you include the absences we are north of 700) out of 4,321 votes. So, he only missed 15% of his votes or to simplify, thats only about 1 out of 5 votes! A simple message is always a good one, Johnson is good to vote about 4 out of 5 times. If you show up at your job four out of five days a week, thats ok, right??

Had some folks try to excuse away Johnson's 700 missed votes last night. Went ahead and took a deeper dive at the last two years only. During that time, Johnson had 242 "not voting" entries and 18 excused absences. A high mark. There are several important bills Johnson initially supported, DOT reform, S831, patient billing, H4069, or the Small Business Regulatory Freedom Act, H3021. Each he initially voted for a version, then oddly, walked on their final passage. Several of these, the DOT and Patient billing, Johnson cited last night as championing, but he didn't actually vote for the final bills There's a few important bills, like S.276, which was the SC Child Abuse and Neglect Network bill, that he just never voted on. Along those same lines, Johnson didn't vote on the AI/Morphed child sexual abuse images bill, H 3046 nor did he vote on the Obscene Representation of Child Sexual Abuse bill, H 3045 bill. Perhaps the most damning to me, Johnson, who stood on the stage and told a grieving mother struggling with her son's death from a fentanyl overdose, that he thinks dealers should be in prison for life. Johnson walked the final vote of S 156, the Fentanyl-induced homicide bill. This isn't spin, these are real bills that he walked that have real impact in folks everyday life over the last two sessions alone (remember he has 700 total of these walked votes). This also doesn't even refer to things he voted against. As an add on, here are a few votes on specific budget items that he advocated for last night, yet didn't vote for when he had a chance: 1) Social Services Funding: H 5126, Section 38 (83 members voted, no Johnson) -$315 million in child care funding was allocated 2) Behavioral health and developmental disabilities: H5126, Section 34, Part 1A (101 members voted, no Johnson) -Covered the budget funding for mental health treatment 3) Children's Advocacy funding: H5126, Section 41, Part 1A (106 members voted, no Johnson) -Covered funding for the Department of Children's advocacy including but not limited to children's advocacy centers and foster care. 4) School Safety funding: H4025, amendment 84A (104 members voted, no Johnson) -Provided the funding for school resource officers. Again, maybe you say, well these all passed, what does it matter? When you want to lead a state, the least you have to do is show up.

No wonder Johnson spent the debate attacking and misleading voters.