“South Carolina has long been a battleground for Students for Life Action. For years, we’ve been fighting to pass a bill to completely end abortion, specifically the Human Life Protection Act, which was filibustered by pro-abortion Republicans,” said SFLAction’s Kristan Hawkins. “Tonight’s 11 victories over flip-flopping Republicans like Senator Sandy Senn and Senator Penry Gustafson signify that the tide is turning in the fight to protect preborn children in the Palmetto State.”
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COLUMBIA, SC (06-12-2024) – Students for Life Action (SFLAction) celebrates the election of 10 pro-life leaders in South Carolina’s House and Senate primary races. SFLAction President Kristan Hawkins said, “For too long, South Carolina’s pro-life voters have been subjected to the weak on Life nonsense of Republican ‘moderates’ like Senators Katrina Shealey, Penry Gustafson, and Sandy Senn. Tonight, many of those patsies of the pro-abortion industry have been sent packing or forced into run offs. Now begins the hard work of passing common-sense protections for preborn children in South Carolina that should have been made law when Roe first fell.”
Leading up to the election, SFLAction has made South Carolina it’s number one state for engagement in for Legislative Primary Elections, engaging in a year-long campaign to educate voters since the 2023 defeat of the Human Life Protection Act. The Act was filibustered and blocked by a handful of Republicans that joined with Democrats to kill the bill in the state senate.
“Our grassroots efforts, from calls, texts, mail, digital ads, and especially doors, made a huge difference in this race,” said Hawkins. “In the specific race of State Senator Sandy Senn, this work was the difference between victory or defeat; Senn lost by only 31 votes, after we knocked on over 1,100 doors in her district. And Rep. Gustafson was roundly beaten in her race as well. Now we turn our attention to the third Republican who betrayed pro-life voters. Two down, one left to go!”
SFLAction sent out two rounds of mailers, totaling 37,407 pieces, as well as three rounds of texts, and a round of calls in the state senate districts alone, as well as running digital ads, door-knocking campaigns, and flyering efforts at churches.
Total programs included:
- 37,407 pieces of mail
- 110,641 text messages
- 47,011 phone calls
- 2,572 doors knocked
Numerous successful candidates returned the Students for Life Action Candidate Survey and pledged to vote pro-life 100%, including:
Senate District 23: Carlisle Kennedy
- A pro-life candidate who scored 100% on our surveyand advances to a runoff against incumbent pro-abortion Senator Katrina Shealy.
Senate District 27: Allen Blackmon
- A pro-life candidate who scored 100% on our surveywho defeated pro-abortion incumbent Senator Penry Gustafson
Senate District 41: Rep. Matt Leber
- A pro-life candidate,who scored 100% on our survey, defeated pro-abortion incumbent Senator Sandy Senn.
House District 6: Rep. April Cromer
- A pro-life incumbent who voted with SFLAction on key legislation.
House District 10: Rep. Thomas Beach
- A pro-life incumbent who voted with SFLAction on key legislation.
House District 28: Chris Huff
- A pro-life candidate who scored 100% on SFLAction’s survey.
House District 34: Sarita Edgerton
- A pro-life candidate who scored 100% on SFLAction’s survey. She advances to a run-off race.
House District 85: Rep. Jay Kilmartin
- A pro-life incumbent who scored 100% on SFLAction’s survey.
House District 88: Rep. RJ May
- A pro-life incumbent who scored 100% on SFLAction’s survey.
House District 96: Rep. Ryan McCabe
- A pro-life incumbent who scored 100% on SFLAction’s survey.
Recently, SFLAction released its second Pro-Life Generation Report Card, scoring the 118th Congress on key pro-life votes, legislation co-sponsorships, and stances in defense of the preborn so far this Congressional cycle. The seven U.S. House Representatives and two U.S. Senators’ pro-life voting records resulted in an averaged total score of an “B” for South Carolina.
SFLAction has been fighting for preborn lives in South Carolina for many years now, with advocacy efforts including:
- Advocating for the passage of the Human Life Protection Act, which would have protected preborn children from the moment of conception and ensured support for medical care if a mother’s life is in danger. During the 2023 campaign, SFLAction targeted 20 South Carolina State Senate districts and contacted more than 100,000 conservative voters through phone programming and text.
- As the 2023 session kicked off, SFLAction held a rally at the capital, lobbied, and ran statewide digital advertising. SFLAction targeted an additional 30 State House districts ahead of the full House vote, contacting another 70,000 conservative voters, while collecting support through an online petition.
- Campaigning in numerous grassroots initiatives to educate voters, engage with lawmakers, and call out weak state legislators for waffling on protections for preborn life, specifically on H.3774, the Human Life Protection Act.
- Visiting state lawmakers to give them a spine, since they lacked one when it came time to make strong pro-life laws a reality in South Carolina.
READ: Correcting the Record on SFLAction’s Spine Awards in South Carolina
SFLAction’s commitment to shaping a pro-life vision for America is laid out in our GOP for Life Campaign, where we are calling on Republican leaders to maintain and defend pro-life laws and protections within the GOP party platform.
TO LEARN MORE ABOUT THE GOP FOR LIFE CAMPAIGN, CLICK HERE
CLICK HERE FOR RNC LEADERSHIP PLEDGE.
For interviews, contact [email protected].
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The Pro-Life Generation (PLG) is an umbrella organization encompassing the most-cutting edge engagement opportunities for a Vote Pro-Life First Community. PLG includes Students for Life Action (SFLAction), a 501c4, along with its 501c3 sister organization, Students for Life of America (SFLA), that together make up the nation’s largest, pro-life youth organization, managing a grassroots political and policy operation engaging Americans of all ages but with a special emphasis on the largest segment of voters — the Youth Vote. Headquartered in Fredericksburg, VA, PLG/SFLA/SFLAction serves more than 1,400 groups on middle, high school, college, medical, and law school campuses in all 50 states. Our team has more conversations with this generation targeted by the abortion lobby than any other pro-life operation in the world, each week reaching more than 4 million across social media platforms and averaging 1.3 million video views. In addition to SFLA/SFLAction, PLG leads multiple initiatives to lead and serve the future of the pro-life movement including the Campaign for Abortion Free Cities, Standing With You, and the Demetree Institute for Pro-Life Advancement . Over more than 17 years, PLG CEO Kristan Hawkins has grown the operation into a nearly $20M organization, now preparing for an abortion-free America.