On Giving Tuesday, a day designed to encourage mass charitable giving, please support the SC Progressive Network, the state’s oldest and only homegrown coalition of grassroots activists.

At 22, the organization has the capacity to effectively advance legislation that makes our state a more just and equitable place to live. Rather than treating the symptoms of South Carolina’s political and social ills, the Network studies and works to provide remedies to a system that puts private profit over public interest. And rather than coming to life only during election season, our advocacy work is ongoing and led by local organizers.

Your donation will help the Network educate, agitate, legislate and litigate for reliable voting machines, an end to gerrymandering, and remedies for political corruption. DONATIONS also support our projects, including the civic campaign DemocraSC and the Modjeska Simkins School for Human Rights, a leadership development institute for emerging activists in South Carolina.

As a member-driven nonprofit, we rely on our family of individual donors. If you can support us financially, we promise to put your donation to good use. If you have time or talent to contribute, we welcome that, as well. To help, call 803-808-3384 or email network@scpronet.com.

Thank you!

Marjorie Hammock and Kyle Criminger
Co-Chairs, SC Progressive Network

While the results of the midterm elections are still unclear, there should be no dispute about who really lost: the voters.

From elections corrupted by money and gerrymandered districts, to faulty voting machines and unnecessary photo-ID laws, to parties using fear and outdated playbooks to mobilize their increasingly polarized bases, voters continue to be victimized by a broken system.

A bit of good news is that the election confirmed the value of the SC Progressive Network‘s strategy of civic engagement and long-term, grass-roots movement building led by people who understand this state’s history and its players. Over 22 years, we have grown a community of activists committed to addressing the root causes of our democratic rot, and mapping a better path that serves all of South Carolina, not just the wealthy, white, and well-connected. We do this every day of the year, not just during election season or legislative sessions.

While we found it a challenge to meet all the volunteer opportunities this election cycle offered, we did an impressive job of registering and mobilizing voters in targeted communities, starting relationships with individuals and organizations that we expect to strengthen in the coming months and years.

Our nonpartisan Missing Voter Project (c-3) and our individual membership’s (c-4) work this year again focused on what Dr. Martin Luther King called “the greatest of all injustices: the inequality in health care.” While the MVP went after unregistered voters, both efforts cited the state’s rejection of Medicaid expansion to cover a quarter-million of its most vulnerable citizens.

We did deep demographic work on registered voters being denied Medicaid funding, and crafted a message to them specifically. We printed 30,000 side-by-side comparisons of the gubernatorial candidates’ positions on expanding Medicaid, and distributed them in neighborhoods with densities of minority voters who had their health care stolen. We mailed 10,000 card to the three House districts that were won by the smallest margins in 2016, and made nearly 30,000 robo-calls to young black registered voters who didn’t vote in the 2016 election.

Rep. Gilda Cobb-Hunter, a founding member of the Network, recorded a call that went to our targeted voters. (You can play the call below.)

We invited recipients to call the Network for more information. Some 130 young black voters called, and spoke to Network Co-chair Omari Fox. “I was surprised by the amount of people in the dark about Medicaid expansion and their potential for health coverage,” Fox said. “Our democracy is sick, and our civic engagement can remedy that. I’m more determined than ever to educate, agitate, and organize.”

Omari Fox (left) and Col. Tim Pearson work to register and mobilize voters at the Columbia Housing Authority’s Fall Festival.

Our most notable electoral win can be attributed in part to the 5,258 cards we mailed to voters in House District 121 letting them know that their health care is being denied by the current governor. J.A. Moore, the young black Democrat, beat Samuel Rivers, the legislature’s only black Republican, by 455 votes (3 percent) in a majority-white district. Moore was not involved in our voter mobilization campaign, nor were any of the other candidates who may have benefited from our work.

The Network also trained volunteers to help protect the vote in South Carolina on Election Day. Network Director Brett Bursey offered this summary just hours before the polls closed on Nov. 6.

In the last few months, the SC Progressive Network’s nonpartisan Education Fund registered hundreds of SC voters, educating them on Medicaid expansion and what’s at stake in the midterm elections. The outreach primarily targeted the 203,000 registered voters of color whose health care was denied by the current governor.

We printed and are distributing 30,000 cards comparing the gubernatorial candidates’ positions on Medicaid expansion. We are mailing thousands of cards to voters who fall into the Medicaid gap, and will be making 30,000 robo-calls to advise them to vote on Nov. 6.

To date, we have spent nearly $9,000 but have raised just $6,500. Unfortunately, some of the people and entities that had promised to help fund our effort did not follow through. We need an additional $2,438 to get the job done. Can you help?

Support our work on voter mobilization by clicking DONATE. (Donations are not tax-deductible.)Omari Fox (left) and Col. Tim Pearson do voter education and mobilization at the Columbia Housing Authority’s Fall Festival.

Over the weekend, the SC Progressive Network moved out of the Modjeska Simkins House, our home since 2009, when Historic Columbia graciously gave us the key. The house will be undergoing much-needed renovation.

We’ve temporarily relocated our offices to the building next door, the former Science Academy, a failed charter school at 2015 Marion St. This will serve as our headquarters until we complete the purchase and rehab of the building at the corner of Marion St. and Elmwood Ave.

We are very grateful to Historic Columbia for letting us use the Modjeska House for nearly a decade. It was a fitting place for activists to organize and strategize, informed and inspired by Ms. Simkins’ work. We’ve outgrown the space, though, and it’s time for the Network to have its own home. We envision something akin to the GROW, the Network’s predecessor. GROW – the Grass Roots Organizing Workshop – was a self-supporting enterprise that over the years ran a worker-owned cafe, an eco-friendly print shop (Harbinger Publications), an independent newspaper (POINT), and offered meeting space for Columbia’s activists.

The move is bittersweet, but we look forward to the next chapter in the Network’s evolution. As always, we appreciate any support – financial or sweat equity – you can offer to help elevate our organization to another level.

Please DONATE, JOIN, or RENEW your membership, and help grow the grassroots in South Carolina!

John Dawkins (left) helps Network Director Brett Bursey on move-in day in 2009.

On Sept. 24, the SC Progressive Network, the SC ACLU, and the National Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights sent a letter to the State Election Commission asking for their contingency plans to extend voter registration in the event of flooding resulting from hurricane Florence.

The letter set a deadline of Sept. 27 for the SEC to respond. The threat of a lawsuit should the SEC not respond was implicit.

After conferencing with the SEC’s attorney yesterday, we got a all this morning from Deputy Attorney General Emory Smith, who proposed that the State Attorney General take over and file suit against the State Election Commission. Attorneys working with the SC Progressive Network from the SC ACLU and the National Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights agreed with Mr. Smith that this would be the most expedient way to proceed. Marci Andino, Executive Director of the SEC, has concurred that the state and counties would be able to extend the voter registration deadline statewide.

It is anticipated that the AG’s office will file tomorrow.

This means we have two more weeks to add to our Missing Voter Project. To volunteer, take a shift by signing up: MVP COLUMBIA VOLUNTEER SIGN–UP LIST

No experience needed, as new volunteers will be paired with trained volunteers. Questions? Call 803-808-3384.

The SC Progressive Network‘s Missing Voter Project is kicking into high gear ahead of the midterm elections Nov. 6, and we need volunteers to take shifts registering voters in Columbia. Stop by our office at 2025 Marion St. to sign the MVP pledge, and to pick up your t-shirt and MVP gear. Call Curt at 803-979-6779 to make arrangements.

Volunteers needed for tabling at Eau Claire Community Health Centers at 1228 Harden St. (M-F + Sat) and 4605 Monticello Rd. (M-F). Let Curt know you will take a Health Center shift.

Volunteers for the COMET Bus Transit Station, Laurel and Sumter, with three shifts a day: 7am-10am; noon-2pm; and 4-7pm.

Sept. 22: MVP table at Jubilee Festival, Marion Street, 11-6pm. Call Daniel at 803-319-5349 or daniel@scpronet.com for details.