COLUMBIA, S.C. — The 6th Congressional District stretches down the middle of South Carolina. It includes many voters here in the Midlands, including parts of Richland, Sumter, Calhoun, and Orangeburg Counties.
Democratic Congressman Jim Clyburn has represented the district in the House of Representatives since he was first elected in 1992, and he wants voters to send him back to Washington.
This year, he has a familiar opponent, Republican Duke Buckner who ran against Clyburn in 2022. Buckner graduated from SC State. He was a teacher, then put himself through law school.
Congressman Clyburn told News 19’s Andrea Mock he looks in every bit of legislation that comes across his desk in DC to see if there’s a way to help South Carolina.
“What I have done over the years is go through every piece of legislation that come to my attention and try to find out how to make that legislation beneficial to the people I represent," Clyburn said. " And I'll give you an example. We got ready to do the American Recovery Reinvestment Act. I inserted this little 10, 20, 30 formula, because I knew the history of these kind of recovery programs, and if you don't pay special attention to them, these communities will get left out.”
Clyburn also said he is proud of his work bringing high speed internet to rural communities in our state, and that he made sure to secure the funding for the bridge over Lake Marion to include water pipes.
“So when they wanted to build a new bridge either on I-95 across Lake Marion and wanted my help, I told him, 'Good. I'll be glad to help with the bridge, but this bridge needs to be designed in such a way that we can put the water pipes on that bridge to get water from Orangeburg County, where we have a big water system over into Clarendon County, where they just had a total failure of their water system in Summerton,” Clyburn said.
Meanwhile, Clyburn's challenger, Duke Buckner doesn’t think Clyburn has done enough.
“His tenure, his clout, his power has not resulted in the district as a whole moving up the economic ladder," Buckner said. "We have been persistently in poverty over the last 30 years, and folks are tired of that, and especially now. Because of the Biden Administration's energy policy, gas has gone up. Food has gone up, rent, everything has gone up, and people are really struggling, and we have to make a change so that people can thrive.”
In 2022, Clyburn won with 62% of the vote. Buckner had 37%.