YCDP-TV

York County joined the Nationwide NO KINGS/VOTE EARLY movement on Saturday, October 17, with a rally on Dave Lyle Blvd in Rock Hill.

Turnout was a little lighter than in the past, but enthusiasm was high as ever.

Senate candidate Dr. Annie Andrews brought her campaign to York County with a Town Hall in Fort Mill on Saturday, October 16. Every minute of the Town Hall is here on YCDP TV.

And a Bonus Extra. After the Town Hall, we found SC House District 26 candidate Jenny Desch talking to some folks and getting herself into ‘campaign mode’, so we rolled the camera and listened in for a mini-Town Hall. Two for the price of free!

Our Civics Lesson notes that there are FOUR School Districts in York County, drawn around for ‘population areas’: York (City), Clover, Rock Hill and Fort Mill. Each District has a seven-member Board of Trustees, with four-year terms. Some are elected this year, the rest in two years.

Candidates nominate themselves (in August) — they are technically nonpartisan, and are not part of the Primary process. All qualified candidates appear on the ballot, and voters choose several from the list.

This episode is the Fort Mill School Board Candidate Forum, sponsored by the Reaganites of York County and held on September 27 at the Catawba Ridge High School. Six of the seven candidates participated. There are four seats up for election, with three incumbents among the sevan candidates.

There will be another Fort Mill Candidate Forum on October 15 at Nation’s Ford High School. It will be livestreamed on the School District’s YouTube channel

The Rock Hill School District also held a candidate forum, and livestreamed it on their YouTube Channel. We don’t know if the York or Clover Districts have held or planned forums and/or put video online.

NO ENDORSEMENTS… but “a list”
Note that because the positions and election are nonpartisan, the YCDP does not endorse candidates, even though most have some political leaning. The GOP and the radical Mom’s for Liberty group do their best to influence candidates and elections, and this year, candidate preference lists are more public than usual (they are often kept quiet to avoid tipping of ‘the opposition’. So in this episode, we do discuss the candidate preferences we’ve heard about (but it’s still not a YCDP endorsement. We take a little more latitude on the YouTube/podcasts to discuss the political environment than we do on the rest of the website).

We also call out one candidate in particular - Larry Barnett - because local education activists tell us they discovered (and saved) some alarming Facebook posts on his public (at the time) timeline that were either made private or taken down the day after he filed for election. This is still not a YCDP position, but our producer compiled this PDF of the pages the activists collected.

THE LAST WORDS…
The program closes with another host/producer (vanity?) segment, this time focusing on an odd Facebook rant by the Reaganites, the group that sponsored the forum. They seem to have a lot of heartburn about us showing up to record the event on video (without asking first). We assumed that it was a public forum (which it was) and open to media (which, apparently, it wasn’t😕?). A minor point, quickly resolved at the event (we thought), but our routine production requests apparently escalated their annoyance (already pre-established because, after all, we’re Democrats) into a major beef🐄. Enjoy.

INDEX:

00:00 Intro 01:04 The Civics lesson. School District map, School Board election details 04:08 This video is the Fort Mill School District Candidate Forum. Details. 05:54 Who's recommended? Because it's non-partisan... we have a list. 07:43 Special attention to candidate Larry Barnett 10:06 Note on a second FMSB Candidate Forum, Oct 15 at Nation's Fort HS 10:32 Note on Rock Hill School District Forum on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/live/8HS0XHg4... 11:39 This video is edited to concentrate on Candidate comments. Unedited version available on York County Reaganites YouTube Channel 13:24 FORUM BEGINS - Intro 14:32 Larry Barnett opening statement 17:00 Keith Griffin opening statement 19:25 Joe Helms opening statement 21:30 Brandon Langford opening statement 24:07 Melissa Maynard opening statement 26:47 Lipi Pratt opening statement 29:07 QUESTION ONE: Spending growth 29:37 Joe Helms response 31:04 Brandon Langford response 33:19 Melissa Maynard response 34:48 Lipi Pratt response 36:35 Larry Barnett response 39:26 Keith Griffin response 41:32 QUESTION TWO: Bond Referendum, debt 41:59 Brandon Langford response 44:46 Melissa Maynard response 47:46 Lipi Pratt response 49:28 Larry Barnett response 51:33 Keith Griffin response 53:47 Joe Helms response 56:42 QUESTION THREE: Safety Issues 56:55 Keith Griffin response 59:04 Joe Helms response 1:01:46 Brandon Langford response 1:04:45 Melissa Maynard response 1:07:40 Lipi Pratt response 1:10:37 Larry Barnett response 1:12:34 QUESTION FOUR: Academic rigor, achievement, measurement 1:12:47 Larry Barnett response 1:12;14 Keith Griffin response 1:16:24 Joe Helms response 1:19:32 Brandon Langford response 1:22:13 Melissa Maynard response 01:25:07 Lipi Pratt response 1:27:16 CLOSING STATEMENTS (30 seconds each) 1:31:34 Gary returns for a little more 'politics' - Reaganites' Facebook complaints about CAPE/YCDP video coverage 1:36:41 Gary's response and comment 1:45:38 OVER and OUT

Our Meet the Candidate series brings us to Jenny Desch, the Democratic nominee for SC House District 26. That’s greater Fort Mill, or Zip Code 29715.

Jenny is currently an Assistant Solicitor (better known as Prosecutor) working in Columbia. She lives in Fort Mill (long commute!), and worked in the prosecutor’s office in York County for almost 20 years before switching to the Columbia office. She grew up an ‘Air Force brat’ in Germany and the Philippines before returning to the states to go to law school and ending up in South Carolina. And though she’s long been a state employee in the legal office, she’s also had her eye on making the laws she’s been enforcing all these years. 2026 is the year to pull the pin on that ambition.

This is a long, in-depth conversation. You’ll really get to know Jenny, and I think you’ll find she will be an awesome State Representative.

In this episode we hear from six Democratic candidates for office in 2026:

Sylvia Wright, running for Superintendent of Education

Mallory Dittmer, running for Congress - US House in the South Carolina 5th - that’s the seat that Ralph Norman gave up to run for Governor, so it’s an open seat… no incumbent

Jason Belton, running for Secretary of State

Tiffany Boozer, running for Comptroller General. We did an extended interview with Tiffany during the Primary

DeShawn Blanding, running for Commissioner of Agriculture. We had a long talk with DeShawn during the Primary as well

Jenny Desch, running for State House in South Carolina District 26. if your Zip Code is 29715, she’s your candidate

Before we hear from the candidates, host/producer Gary Pearce talks about the two Special Election/Primaries coming up in August and September for some York County voters, and he discusses a vision issue 👁 he's having that's keeping him from attending and recording events and forums. He'll have a partial cornea transplant in early August that will hopefully correct the issue 🤞.

Our thanks to Lacy Layne for providing this video. It was recorded on July 8 at an event called the Fort Mill Forum, but as you can see, five of the six candidates will be on the ballot for all of York County.

Details on candidates, voting and the Special Elections/Primaries at our website: https://YorkSCdems.org

Learn more about 'overdrive' 🚗 from our young friend here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eJ9eynCm824

Rep. John King and former Rock Hill City Councilman Perry Sutton squared off for a lively debate hosted by the Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority in Rock Hill on June 1. Sutton has challenged incumbent King in the Democratic Primary for State House District 49, which covers most of Rock Hill, and reaches out to the City of York.

The YCDP TV Media Empire thanks YCDP Chair Nikita Jackson for recording this debate. If you vote in House District 49 and you haven’t already voted early (or even if you have), watch or listen to get a good read on both candidates.

Just a little goofing around for a minute here…

I was enjoying media coverage of the Redistricting FAIL in the SC Senate, and I asked YouTube to find me some stories about it. Most were either straight news coverage, or celebratory posts.

Then I hit this one, with its title about RINOs 🦏 (Republicans In Name Only), with a real crybaby 😭 host who feels like Republicans are entitled to run government, no matter what... because only they know what's best for America? That's the way MAGA thinks.

Democrats are the enemy, of course, but moderate Republicans are even worse. They should know better, but they don't. So sad. Sorry about more Civics lesson. Can't help myself. And that’s Episode 51.

And then I worried that just watching that one Benny Johnson video would take over my YouTube algorithm and feed me Republican propaganda for the rest of my life, but instead it showed me this Daily Show clip about Benny that it turns out I’d seen before. I just didn’t make the connection between that and The Benny Show. Good job, YouTube! Good job, Daily Show!

So I slapped together a few short bits from the show and made another YCDP mini-episode… not even enough to get a full episode number, so I called it 51½/

The Audio podcast has both just smooshed together for your convenience. -Gary

Meet Bruce Cole, Democratic candidate for South Carolina Comptroller General.

Bruce's list of education and business credentials is as long as... well, I can't bring myself to repeat the cliché, so let's just say it's really long, and well suited for what is generally considered to be a fairly technical position. Good enough, but now get to know the person behind the resumé.

That means we have two highly qualified Democratic candidates for this office. We talked to Tiffany Boozer a couple of weeks ago. It's going to be hard to decide.

DeShawn Blanding’s‍ ‍life trajectory has been headed for this - running for Commissioner of Agriculture - since high school, when he was elected President of his chapter of the Future Farmers of America. In this episode he tells us about his extensive career advocating for farmers and agriculture… and for everyone who has a connection to food, such as people who like to eat… while holding positions in and out of government.

Ag Comm is more administrative than political. They don’t set policy (that’s done in the legislature), but they can be a strong advocate. They can’t control grocery prices. DeShawn told us he would favor the office being non-partisan, but at present it is partisan and subject to Republican straight-ticket voting.

When you meet Tiffany Boozer, your first impression is probably not math whiz. Once you get past her name, you find she is young, energetic, outgoing, dare we say ‘spunky’? And she has a passion for… auditing ✏. Didn’t see that coming. If you’ve ever struggled to balance your checkbook (kids, ask your parents), that’s a challenge she would jump at. And as it turns out, she gets to help balance the checkbook for the entire state of South Carolina.

Tiffany is an auditor in the Comptroller General’s office in Columbia, and now she’s running as a Democrat for the top job in that office. She is a CPA, and her platform is competency — she wants to run a professional shop, as a professional. And not as a politician. She would prefer the office be appointed, not elected, or at least be a non-partisan office if it has to be on the ballot. But it’s not (yet), so she’s running as a Democrat.

Turns out the current Comptroller is also a Democrat (didn’t see that coming, either). He was appointed by Governor McMaster to clean up the mess after the previous Comptroller let errors creep into the state’s books over a decade, to the tune of over a Billion dollars (so he quit). it wasn’t stolen, it wasn’t ‘missing’… it was bad accounting. But the current Comptroller doesn’t want to run, and he convinced Tiffany to go for it.

She does have a Primary opponent, Bruce Cole, so for the moment her sights are set on the June 9 Primary. And by the way, we mention in the episode that we couldn’t find a website for Mr. Cole. Well, Google couldn’t find it, but the Horry County Democrats did, and we found it through them.

We enjoyed getting to know Tiffany, and we think you will, too.