Long-time South Carolina First Circuit Solicitor David Pascoe is running to be Attorney General of South Carolina. After two decades of serving in the position as a Democrat, Pascoe is running for the position of AG as a Republican after allegedly having a change of heart in April 2025 – conspicuously coinciding with the start of his AG campaign.

South Carolina Democratic Party Chair Christale Spain accused Pascoe of cynically changing his party affiliation as part of a gambit to get elected in a solidly red state where a Democrat has zero chance of winning a statewide race. Pascoe frames his conversion as legitimate, claiming the Democrats alienated him with their lunge to far-left extremism.

“You can call me a RINO, it doesn’t bother me at all. Just don’t call me a liberal,” Pascoe said while announcing he was running for AG, which came just two months after switching parties.

“I’ve sat on stages with the most powerful Democrats in the country, but they never liked me,” Pascoe wrote in an X post, branding himself as a maverick outsider.

Pascoe paints himself as a tough-on-crime bulldog who will stop illegal immigration and enforce the rule of law. But his record shows that he was never out of step with the Democrats as the party went off the rails and embraced anti-American radicalism. Pascoe’s record shows that he was fully onboard with the Democrats’ far-left agenda, being a staunch supporter of Obama and Biden, and being an outspoken advocate of the woke-ism that has taken hold of his former party.

A 2012 story in The State lauded Pascoe for campaigning for President Barack Hussein Obama in North Carolina as part of a movement of out-of-state transplants who were hitting doors to keep the country in the death grip of the Marxist-in-Chief.

“I wanted to volunteer a few hours of my day,” Pascoe said, bragging about his out-of-state interloping for Obama. “I would like to get up there at least one or two more Saturdays.”

In Jan. 2020, Pascoe held his big annual Democrat fundraiser, an oyster roast and fish fry, where he hosted then-Vice President Joe Biden. Shortly after his fundraiser, Pascoe released a gushing endorsement of Biden’s candidacy for the presidency, stating unequivocally that he had modeled his career in public service after Biden.

“I’ve seen a lot of candidates come in and out of my Circuit…to make their pitch to my constituents, but none like Joe Biden. I have known Joe personally for over a decade and followed his career for over thirty years. He is the most decent man I have ever met in American politics. Joe is a hard working public servant, but the way he delicately balances work and family is something every public official should strive to accomplish,” Pascoe said. 

“Joe has been a role model of mine for many years. He is someone my sons look up to. And that is exactly what we so desperately need in the White House, someone our children can look up to and who puts service above self. I have never seen our country more divided in my lifetime than it is right now. I am all in for Joe because he can bring us together right away. For these reasons and more, Joe is the first and only candidate I have ever endorsed for public office,” he continued.

Pascoe was also a major proponent of DEI in the judiciary as recently as Dec. 2023. He demanded that the Judicial Merit Selection Commission, an independent state commission in South Carolina that is influential in selecting judges to serve on the bench, make their recommendations based on a racial quota system.

“A major reason I am personally calling for reform is because of the lack of diversity on the bench,” Pascoe said. “Look at what the current process has gotten our state. We currently have no women on our Supreme Court, and come this July we will have no person of color. It is insanity for anyone not to support reform for the good of our state.”

Pascoe also stumped for far-left State Rep. Heather Bauer, who has received a woeful 28 percent rating from the Freedom Index for supporting corporate welfare, refusing to ban DEI mandates, supporting the mutilation of the sexual organs of children, supporting voter registration for illegal immigrants, supporting hate crime legislation that infringes on the 1st Amendment, and opposing permitless concealed carry for firearms..

“She has accomplished more in her first term in office than other House members who have been there for over a decade. More importantly, no one has demonstrated more courage. She stands up to the Good Ole Boy leadership of both parties to do what is right for her constituents and our State,” Pascoe said in his full-throated endorsement of Rep. Bauer, which he posted on Facebook in Oct. 2024.

Pascoe was so well known as a far-left Democrat that his nomination for the position of U.S. Attorney of South Carolina was immediately shut down by Sens. Lindsey Graham and Tim Scott when Biden was considering Pascoe for the position in 2021.

Pascoe’s long record cannot be absolved because of a few carefully-constructed campaign speeches. He hopes to dupe Republican voters into accepting him as their next AG despite his many decades as a dutiful Democrat Party hack. South Carolina voters would be wise to reject this self-serving career politician’s audacious reinvention attempt in the 2026 Republican primary election.

America’s capital used to be about deliberation. We debated policy. We held hearings. We hashed out trade-offs. But now we are in the age of spectacle and subterfuge — and the latest example is how the Senate decided to “solve” the hemp-derived cannabinoid issue: not with a thoughtful law, but by burying sweeping language in a must-pass spending measure.

The deal in the FY 2026 Agriculture/FDA appropriations package effectively declares that any “hemp-derived cannabinoid product … is limited to a total of 0.4 milligrams of total THC or any other cannabinoids with similar effects.” And it defines “hemp-derived cannabinoid product” as “any intermediate or final product derived from hemp … intended for human or animal use through any means of application or administration.” This is not regulation. It is prohibition by the back door.

Yes, I agree with restricting non-naturally occurring cannabinoids like delta-8 THC and synthetic analogues. The regulatory gap opened by the 2018 Farm Bill invited exact exploitations: quick “hemp” analogues, untested psychotropic isomers, and retail shelves full of sketchy products. That needed to be cleaned up.

But what the Senate is doing is not cleaning up. It is blowing up the entire industry. By redefining hemp to include “any cannabinoid with similar effects as tetrahydrocannabinol (THC)”, then capping every container at 0.4 mg THC equivalents, they turn what was legal commerce into an existential threat overnight.

Farmers, manufacturers, retailers and yes, patients who have come to rely on hemp-derived relief are all collateral damage. These are not small plants in the wind—they’re entire supply chains, state pilot programs, rural jobs, and agricultural investment. Repealing this via a spending bill is the worst form of policy: rushed, opaque, with no oversight, no expert hearings, no input from those who built the business under one regulatory regime and now find that regime changed mid-game.

Congress is simply punting. They are taking a hard problem—how to regulate intoxicating hemp derivatives—and delaying real debate by hiding it in the appropriations process. That’s a cheap cop-out. Worse: it signals to the world that U.S. policy will be reactive and hidden, not open, deliberative and fair.

What we should have instead is a clear statute: one that distinguishes between naturally occurring cannabinoids, engineered isomers, and licensed therapeutic preparations; that sets potency standards based on science; that preserves legitimate wellness uses, agricultural opportunity, and patient access while protecting the public from uncontrolled psychoactive products. We should also engage the USDA, FDA, DEA and state regulators in transparent rule-making.

Instead, we get midnight riders, disguised policy change, and political expediency masked as legislative action. Senator Mitch McConnell and others helped create the 2018 Farm Bill—and now they’re tearing it up in the dark, calling it “closing a loophole.” But closing a loophole doesn’t require obliterating the entire market.

My recommendation: pull the hemp section out of the spending bill. Congress should schedule hearings, invite farmers and manufacturers, calibrate potency and licensing, and pass a focused bill that addresses the challenge—rather than using the funding bill as a one-size-fits-all hammer.

Because when policy is made in the shadows, people pay. Not just big corporations. Farmers. Patients. Small business. Jobs. Access. If you’re going to act, act openly. Debate it. Disclose it. Decide it. Don’t bury it. America deserves better.

There are occasions in the American calendar that demand reverence rather than routine. Today, Veterans Day, is one of them. It is not a day of mere sentiment. It is a civic duty to acknowledge the men and women who stood in the breach for the survival of the United States of America.

Veterans Day began as Armistice Day. The First World War, that terrible cataclysm of the twentieth century, ended on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month in 1918. One year later on November 11, 1919 President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed the first national commemoration which continues to commemorate America military veterans to this day. In 1938 Congress made Armistice Day an official holiday dedicated to peace. After the Second World War and the Korean War, the holiday became known as Veterans Day in 1954 with a nod to Armistice Day’s original date. Its purpose was expanded to honor all who served rather than only those who fought in a war. This was a wise and noble change. It recognized that the defense of the Republic is a continuous calling.

Today there are approximately sixteen million veterans in the United States. Each one represents a chapter in the story of American strength. Some served on aircraft carriers in the Pacific. Others patrolled the snows of Korea. Many marched through the jungles of Vietnam. Others stood posts in Germany, Iraq, Afghanistan, and countless unnamed stations across the globe. Their service forms a living chain stretching from Lexington and Concord to the present hour.

A remarkable number of our presidents have worn the uniform. George Washington led the Continental Army. Andrew Jackson fought both the British and their tribal allies. Ulysses S. Grant crushed the Confederacy and preserved the Union. John F. Kennedy commanded PT 109 in the Pacific. Dwight D Eisenhower led the armies that broke the Nazi war machine. George H. W. Bush flew combat missions in the Pacific as a teenager. Service in uniform does not guarantee greatness, but it often forges the clarity, discipline, and steel that leadership requires. Approximately two thirds of all presidents were veterans. That is not an accident. The stewardship of a nation is best entrusted to those who have already proven they will bleed for it.

There is something else unique about our veterans. Since 1973 the United States has had a one hundred percent volunteer military. No draft. No conscription. No coercion. Every soldier, every sailor, every Marine, every airman, and every guardian raised a hand and swore that sacred Oath of their own free will. The most powerful fighting force in human history is composed entirely of men and women who chose to serve. That is patriotism made real. That is devotion to the Republic of the United States of America not as an abstraction but as a sacred obligation accepted freely, willingly, and unreservedly.

On this Veterans Day President Donald J. Trump is honoring America’s warriors in a manner that reflects not only his gratitude but also his bond with them. Throughout his presidency he strengthened the US Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) after decades of bureaucratic neglect. He signed the VA Accountability and Whistleblower Protection Act so that corrupt or incompetent officials could be removed rather than shielded. He expanded veterans’ access to private medical care when the VA could not provide it. He secured the largest military pay raise in years and rebuilt America’s forces from the exhaustion of endless wars. Even out of office he remained a consistent advocate for veterans, attending ceremonies, visiting wounded service members, highlighting military families, and insisting that the nation must never abandon its warriors after they return home.

President Trump is loved by the military because he has always loved them first. Not with slogans. Not with platitudes. With his deeds. With his resources. With his respect. He listened to the enlisted as well as the generals. He recognized that a nation cannot be free if its defenders are ignored, underpaid, or mistreated. The rank and file know this. They know who fights for them, and they know who uses them as political decoration. The bond between President Trump and America’s veterans is real, enduring, and deeply felt.

Veterans Day matters because a Republic that forgets its defenders will not remain a Republic for long. Our freedoms did not descend from the clouds like gentle rain. They were earned by sacrifice, discipline, risk, and courage. Veterans understand that freedom has a price. Most civilians only enjoy the receipt.

On this Veterans Day I ask Americans to do more than post a phrase on social media. Speak to a veteran. Thank them directly for your freedom. Ask about their service. Remember those who never came home. Teach children that liberty survives only because stronger souls shield it.

The men and women who served did so without promise of reward or guarantee of safety. They stepped forward when others stood back. They did not ask whether America was perfect. They asked how they could defend her. That is the highest form of citizenship.

May God bless our veterans. May God bless those who currently serve. May God bless President Donald J. Trump. And may God bless the United States of America.