Episode 21: First Day Filing

March 16 was the first day that candidates for the ‘down ballot’ offices in South Carolina could file for the June 11 Primary. The YCDP-TV production crew (just me - Gary) headed out to the Government Building in the County Seat (the Town of York) to catch the action.

I was going to meet Matt Vilardebo – Matt was filing to make his second run at the SC House in District 26 (Fort Mill area). I expected a quiet exchange down in the elections office in the basement. Fill out some forms, pay a fee, hit the road.

Instead, I found a pretty Big Deal. The elections office set up tables in the lobby, and the lobby was full of candidates (all Republicans), all there to get filed on Day One. So was Matt.

I followed him through the process, and we did a few quick interviews as thing went along.

I also talked to Alan Helms, York County’s Voter Registration & Elections Director who was overseeing the whole thing. And I talked to Republican Watts Huckabee, who was there to file for his second tour with the York County Council (his first full tour - he was appointed to fill the remaining term of Brandon Guffey, who moved up to the SC House in 2022.

While Matt notes that he was the only Democrat at the First Day ceremonies, fiing is open until noon on April 1. We are hoping that several other Democrats will step up to challenge some of the Republican inclubents. If you decide to do that, you’ll get some YCDP-TV coverage, too! (It’ll help if you let us know.) Candidates filing from now until the April 1 deadline won’t get the royal treatment in the lobby… you’ll get that quiet exchange down in the basement.

One more thing: we’ve worked hard at getting the YCDP website’s Voting in York County and Meet the Candidates pages up to date. Stop by often to learn about the process and the people that make up the 2024 election.

Episode 20: The 2024 YCDP Convention

The YCDP held our 2024 Convention on Saturday, March 9 in Rock Hill. Officers were elected, Matt Vilardebo was introduced as candidate for SC House from District 26, several Resolutions were passed (and sent to the SCDP), and our keynote speaker was Carol Fowler from the SCDP and Richmond County Democratic Party. And it’s all here on our YouTube Channel!

The video at our YouTube Channel has an extensive time-coded INDEX to all the activity at the Convention to make it easier to zero in on whatever you want to review.

The AUDIO version is right here, and also on our Podcast feed.

Episode 19: Forgive Me (My Student Debt) 💸

Student debt relief isn’t just a headline. It impacts real people, many of them here in York County. And in this episode, we’ll meet two of them.

Mary Long is a retired mother of two, and took on a buden of debt to put her kids through college, an opportunity she never had. But a series of plant closings left her unemployed for a time, while the interest on that debt kept mounting. Kizmet Moore put herself through college, including a Master’s Degree, but the cost was staggering. Both had the balance of their loans forgiven by the Biden Administration, relief that changed their lives.

YCDP 2nd Vice Chair Milissa Rouse takes over the interview chair for this show, with moral support from Chair Nikita Jackson and 3rd Vice Chair Amber Pearson-Bowen. Producer Gary Pearce got to sit back and push the buttons.

Note that Mary relates her positive experience with a company called ABS (A Better Solution). They consolidated student debt and structured a more feasible payment plan for many. Others accused them of being a scam. We found stories of investigations, but no results or charges. In any case, it appears the company is out of business

YCDP TV is a YouTube show and audio podcast, produced by the York County (SC) Democratic Party. Please subscribe to our YouTube Channel, or the podcast in your podcast app.

Episode 18: Matt Vilardebo Announces for SC House 26

Matt Vilardebo has announced his second run for SC House District 26 which covers the Fort Mill area in York County. This year, incumbent Republican Raye Felder has announced that she is not running for reelection, making the seat wide open, and a better chance to flip Democrat.

At this point, Matt is the only candidate to declare for this seat in the Democratic Primary (to be held June 11). The deadline for filing is April 1st (and filing doesn’t even begin until March 16th), so most offices up for reelection this year don’t have declared candidates yet.

The YCDP does not endorse candidates in the Primary, but we will cover all bona fide candidates. Contact us at 📞(803) 327-4222.

Matt Vilardebo announces candidacy for SC House 26 Democratic Primary

Episode 17: Primary Education

CENSORED Version 🙈 (the UNcensored version is now viewable)

The First in the Nation Democratic Presidential Preference Primary is over. The media have moved on. South Carolina had its moment in the spotlight.

“Video Unavailable”? NBC/Universal blocked this program for a few days because we used a short clip of candidate Nikki Haley from a Saturday Night Live skit. We challenged this removal on Fair Use grounds, and after about 48 hours, NBC agreed with us and removed their restriction.

But for us here in York County, it’s worth taking time to reflect and review what it was all about, and what it meant to us. The outcome wasn’t a surprise, and we expected a low turnout. But was it ‘good enough’?

Joining us are YCDP Chair Nikita Jackson, 3rd Vice Chair Amber Pearson-Bowen, and one of our representatives on the SCDP Executive Committee (and our institutional memory) John Holder. This is the first time on the show for Amber and John.

We also talk about the June Primary for all the other offices up for election, the upcoming YCDP Convention, and what it takes to be chosen to attend the State and National Conventions. And we’ll play some of the Saturday Night Live ‘cold open’ with the surprise cameo from candidate and former SC Governor Nikki Haley.

Our host and producer is Gary Pearce.

SC Senator Wes Climer (R-15, York County) Town Hall

Wes Climer is the Republican State Senator from District 15 in York County.

On February 1, 2024, he presented a 'Town Hall' on his Facebook page, talking about some of the issues before the state Senate and taking a few questions. The session ran about 30 minutes. We edited that down to a 4- minute synopsys, without any editorial comment of our own, just to give you an idea of what he had to present.

It will be kind of choppy, without a transition between topics, but we think you can follow along. You can see the full session here: https://www.facebook.com/wesclimersc/

Episode 16: Primary Voting in York County

Don’t look now, but it’s election season 👀. South Carolina is host to the First in the Nation Democratic Party Presidential Preference Primary on Fegruary 3rd. That’s First, plus or minus New Hampshire just ignoring the DNC’s mandate (but without Joe Biden on the ballot 😮). And the RNC sticking to their traditional calendar and voting three weeks later in February, well after Iowa and New Hampshire. 🙄

The Primary calendar is complicated by all that, and the effect it has on early voting. And the third Primary date in June for all the other offices on the ballot. Perhaps you’d like some help.

To the rescue rides YCDP’s new Chair, Nikita Jackson, joining host Gary Pearce to review the calendar and all the options in detail. They’re picking their data from the YCDP web page Voting in York County, so you can go there to review all the info they give you. But the show is kind of a fun romp… anything but dry and dusty.

Here’s the Audio Podcast. You can also subscribe to the audio in your favorite podcast app. Look for YCDP-TV

This is Nikita’s first visit to YCDP-TV. And ‘visit’ isn’t the right word. As Gary says, “I feel like I’m welcoming you into your own home.”

When this Primary is done, you can catch your breath. The action will move to a few other states, and only the cable news channels will be doing wall-to-wall politics. Oh, and us. We’ll be watching to see who enters the state and local races ahead of that June Primary. So settle in.

Episode 15: Ain’t No Kid in South Carolina Ever Been Whupped Upside the Head for Telling Their Parents They Are Gay or Trans

South Carolina is playing catch-up. 22 other states have beaten us to the punch in passing anti-trans legislation, specifically laws that prohibit giving kids under 18 what’s called ‘Gender Affirming Care’. But we’re getting back in the game. The first legislation the ‘3M’ committee in the SC House took up in the new session in January 2024 was our own anti-trans bill. It’s H-4624. They call it Gender Reassignment Procedures. We call it… well, read the title of this show.

For anyone under 18, the bill would outlaw drugs that block the onset of puberty while a kid, their doctor and hopefully their parents figure out their gender identity; hormones for older kids who are farther along the transition process; and gender reassignment surgery for the very, very rare situations where it’s called for. It may also require school teachers and staff to inform parents if they suspect a student is showing signs of gender dysphoria (the clinical term for ‘wondering if they’re in the wrong body’). And if the school thinks that the student’s parents might react badly (violently) to learning that their kid thinks they should be trans… too bad. They can’t even advise the kid not to tell the parents.

The bill passed out of the subcommittee and full committee where it started, and at press time was set to be introduced in the full House, where it’s expected to pass. If it does pass, it moves to the State Senate for debate. Chances there are unknown, but if it passes the Senate, it goes to the Governor for signature. In 2022, McMaster signed an anti-trans athlete bill.

Early in January, a subcommittee of the House Committee on Medical, Military, Public and Municipal Affairs held a hearing. Almost 50 people testified. Of them, only one favored the bill. All the rest firmly opposed it. Those testifying included doctors, therapists and counselors, educators, advocacy group leaders, and many transgendered people.

But the Republicans held fast to their notion that denying care to potential trans youth was ‘protecting’ them, and that parents had a right to know if schools suspected a student might have those thoughts, regardless of what the parent’s reaction might be.

Here on our first YCDP-TV show of 2024, we talk to four of the people who testified at the subcommittee hearing. Lacey Lane is a York County parent and educator. She’s been on the show before, in her role with CAPE (Community Advocates for Public Education). There, she helped us keep track of the York County Council’s efforts to interfere with the Library Board. At the top of this show, she brings us up to date.

Dr. Martha Edwards is a Pediatrician. Jessicka Spearman is a Counselor and parent of a trans child. And Amberlyn Boiter is a parent, activist and trans woman. Your host is Gary Pearce.

At the end of the show, we include video of the testimony from several of the people who attended the hearing. The session ran over three hours, so we can’t show them all, but their presentations are compelling. If you want to see more, you can download the video here (it’s a big file for a 3+hour video, and it downloads s l o w l y) . You can skip the download and watch online if you prefer, but it’s a little harder to get to. Go to this website, select the year 2024, then scroll down to Tuesday, January 9 - House Medical, Military, Public and Municipal Affairs Committee -- 3-M Medical and Health Affairs. It looks like this:

Hello, World

“Hello, World” - this is a short podcast audio clip to let us get registered with Apple Podcasts. That’s what distributes the audio to your podcast app.