The voters of South Carolina reminded the country that the GOP primary process if far from decided after overwhelmingly voting for former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich in the country's third primary contest of the 2012 election season.
Gingrich, the former congressman from Georgia, secured some 40 percent of the total vote, according to the Associated Press. Mitt Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, claimed just 27.8 percent, a distant second.
Former Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Minn.) finished third with 17 percent and U.S. Rep. Ron Paul (R-Tex.) rounded out the top four with 13 percent of the state's primary votes.
Campaign for Southern Equality made national news yesterday when activists from the organization attempted to secure marriage licenses in Greenville, S.C., as part of the organization's We Do Campaign.
Three couples from the group, Michel McVicker and Alyssa Weaver, Pastor Ra’Shawn Barlow-Flournoy and Pastor Kelvin Barlow-Flournoy, and April Whittington and Tanika Jones, requested marriage licenses yesterday at the County Probate Court in Greenville, S.C.
All three couples were denied because they did not meet the legal requirements for marriage in the state. South Carolina has a constitutional amendment banning same-sex unions.
I grew up in South Carolina. Known for its awesomely backwoods political mentality, South Carolina, at least in my lifetime, has always been an experiment in near-unchecked conservative-minded politics.
If you wonder where people like Tea Party favorite Michele Bachmann find support, you need look no further than my hometown and small towns like it across the Palmetto state.
Where I'm from, Democrats don't win elections. If you want to win, join the GOP, run in their primary, beat your opponents and run unopposed in November. It's how politics are played there, especially in local elections.