COLUMBIA, S.C. — Two candidates are facing off this November to represent parts of Lexington, Richland, and Calhoun Counties in the Senate. Representative Russell Ott is the Democratic nominee, while Jason Guerry is the Republican nominee.
A new candidate will take over representing District 26 in the Senate for the first time in decades, after long-time Senator Nikki Setzler stepped down. Calhoun County's Russell Ott has over 10 years of experience in the General Assembly as a state representative, but will be looking to make his move to the Senate. Lexington County's Jason Guerry is looking to secure his first term in the General Assembly and describes himself as a life-long member of the Republican party.
Each candidate was asked questions off a predetermined list of topics, and allowed to contribute two topics they'd like to discuss.
Education
Both candidates identified education as a top priority issue.
Guerry says he thinks skills trade is an important to the education system, and that every school in SC should have a career center.
" think that we're missing that opportunity with our youth and in school, be auto mechanics, it could be a welding, it could be electrical, it could be plumbing, it could be carpentry. There's so many things out there that they can do, and those jobs pay really well," said Guerry.
He also said he believes that great teachers and parental involvement can significantly improve test scores.
Ott says his first goal is and will always be public education. He says he thinks it's important to focus on putting money into public schools, and not vouchers for private schools.
He says the most important goal is to help teachers, by improving teacher pay beyond the raises passed in this year's state budget, and helping with discipline concerns in the classroom.
"We have to get more teachers into the classroom. I think that starts with, you know, certainly acknowledging the fact that these are professionals and we need to pay them as such. We've done a good job of increasing teacher pay in South Carolina over the last three or four years. But like I said before, we're not jumping our neighbors to the north and to the South. North Carolina and Georgia are continuing to also increase teacher pay. So we're really just keeping pace. We're not, we're not gaining ground and surpassing them," said Ott.
He also emphasized continuing to work on having a School Resource Officer in every school, full-time.
Health care
South Carolina is ranked among the bottom states for health outcomes. Both candidates were asked what they want to do to help change that.
Ott emphasized improving health education and early-detection of health issues. He'd like to see Medicaid expanded, to improve health outcomes in the state.
"We're paying these tax dollars we should be able to get a benefit from them. Other states are doing it. It's time for South Carolina to do it as well. But it doesn't just stop there. I mean, you know, we've got to continue to work with our hospitals to drive costs down. Prescription drugs oftentimes are far too expensive for folks to be able to maintain," said Ott.
Guerry also emphasized driving down costs of health care, and says legislators need to get involved in controlling healthcare costs and monitoring overbilling.
"A lot of things that we need to look at is just procedures that people need to have those those costs have gotten so astronomically high because of the insurance that the doctors and the hospitals are having to carry on themselves, so that all just rolls downhill and is rolling down to the patient," said Guerry.
Infrastructure
Guerry identified infrastructure as one of his top priorities.
He says energy and water infrastrcuture are his top goals.
"Clean water is very important. If you don't have power and you don't have clean water, and then you have good roads, that's makes life hard for people, clean water is very important," said Guerry.
He said he wants to focus on completing existing projects, Carolina Crossroads project, and alleviating the burden on taxpayers
"That is a huge project that's going on in District 26 and is sucking up a lot of resources, but we don't need any delays in that. We need to make sure that moves forward," said Guerry.
Ott also emphasized the importance of that project.
"Malfunction Junction is currently being revitalized, which will be huge for the entire area and the whole region, that doesn't happen without leadership. That doesn't happen without taking bold stances years ago, and I was proud to be a part of of that, to make sure that we've got the revenue needed to be able to accomplish some of those long term visions," said Ott.
He says making storm water and waste water improvements is vital to the rural parts of his district, many of which rely on other region's water and wastewater systems.
"I think that that we've got to continue to focus on that, to make sure that, again, folks have good, clean, reliable drinking water, and that we've got wastewater capacity so that we are able to address attract high paying jobs," Ott added.
Inflation
Ott says one solution to helping reduce inflation and make things more affordable in his district is to work on helping local businesses. He said insurance premiums is something he wants to continue to look into.
"Everyone is going to have to come together and pitch in to try to come up with a solution that works, but it's focusing on those types of issues, because then that means, if we're able to support our small business owners and our business owners, in reality, we're supporting their employees, when we're supporting our constituents and making sure that they've got a good job that they can depend on and rely on," said Ott.
Guerry says he thinks government spending is a big driver of inflation.
"The more the government spends, the more the inflation goes up. And we haven't hit the inflation bust yet, but the inflation bust is coming, and it's going to be very painful for the people," said Guerry. "We have to be careful about what I would call is corporate welfare. And corporate welfare can lead to you spending a lot of money as a state and taxpayers money, and you're left holding the bag."
Abortion
South Carolina has a six week abortion ban, but many other states in the south east have total abortion bans. Both candidates were asked at what point they think abortion should be banned, neither provided an exact answer for a number of weeks. Ott said he would not support a total abortion ban, and described the 6-week ban as "dangerous."
Ott has previously voted for the 6-week ban, but then voted against it in 2023. He described the current 6-week ban as dangerous.
"It's dangerous to a lot of South Carolina women, it's ignoring what a lot of medical professionals tell us," said Ott.
Ott has previously voted for the "Fetal Heartbeat Bill", but then voted against it in 2023. He says while he opposes the 6-week ban, the issue has taken up too much political space in the State House.
"I fully expect there will be legislators that continue to use abortion issues as a political football that they use for political gain," said Ott.
Guerry described himself as "100% pro-life," and did not say he would support or oppose a total abortion ban. He thinks it's important to let the state's current 6-week ban work out before any further action is taken on abortion legislation.
"I do believe that there are some exceptions to it, just like what Trump has looked at is, you know, there's some exceptions," said Guerry. "We make sure that we let it work itself out. And I want to be respectful to the people and also to the legislation that just worked hard to get that bill passed."