Political leaders aren’t getting younger. South Carolina’s young people hope to change that. | Palmetto Politics

COLUMBIA — Joe Cunningham found himself in a tough spot. 

Cunningham, appearing June 23 on CNN’s flagship morning show “New Day,” sat across a table from host John Berman to discuss a splashy new political ad suggesting his opponent, 75-year-old Gov. Henry McMaster, was too old to capably serve the people of South Carolina. 

Instead, the conversation almost immediately pivoted to whether his party’s own president, 79-year-old Joe Biden, was himself fit to serve out his current term, much less two consecutive terms.

“I’m not sure if any of us know any 86-year-olds who should be running the entire country,” Cunningham said. 

The comments quickly attracted criticism from U.S. Rep. Jim Clyburn, who is 81 years old. The South Carolina Democrat has faced his own calls to step aside for a new generation of leaders after serving the better part of three decades in Congress. Clyburn told reporters Cunningham needed “to grow up” when asked about Cunningham’s comments during an appearance in Greenville. 

While the delivery might have been clumsy, young people in South Carolina see a lot of truth in Cunningham’s greater message. Namely, that the state’s politics are too old and that political leaders within both parties have shown little interest in cultivating a new crop of political leaders who reflect the ideals and values of a rising generation.

“We have to find a way to bridge the gap between the old and the young generation,” said Tyler Swain Mitchell, a recent Citadel graduate and South Carolina Democratic activist.

“President Biden, congressman Clyburn, they’re closer to 100 than they are 50,” he added. “They have more days behind them than they do ahead of them. So it’s time that the next generation prepares for that.” 

Outnumbered

A week before his 17th birthday, Ryan Thompson — inspired by Hillary Clinton’s loss in the 2016 presidential election — decided to attend his first-ever meeting of the Horry County Democratic Party. What he found was a room of people older than him by many decades, with little idea of what to do with him. Some wanted to push him into leadership immediately. At times, Thompson said he felt pressure to be the voice of all the area’s young people. 

Thompson, now a 21-year-old Democratic candidate for South Carolina’s House District 106, has since committed himself to getting more young people involved in the area’s politics. He has started a Discord group for young people in Democratic politics around the state and, at campaign events, has worked to register young people to vote in the upcoming election on a platform that reflects the ideals of a younger generation.

“A lot of people my age are running because we’re like, ‘Well, where are the adults in the room? Where are the leaders?'” Thompson said. “They’re not stepping up to do their job. So I guess we have to.”

Both major parties have initiatives in place to give voices to a younger crop of leaders like the Clyburn Fellowship, which officers policy and political training to a revolving crop of young Democrats every year. However many young people feel that while the training opportunities are there, the willingness from local and state party leaders to let them apply those opportunities in the real world is minimal. 

Though Republicans have elevated younger politicians to leadership Statehouse positions — 25-year-old Majority Whip Brandon Newton and 37-year-old Majority Leader Russell Fry in the House come to mind, while Alex Stroman was just 23 when he was named the state GOP’s executive director — South Carolina’s politicians are typically much older than the people they serve.

In the not too distant past, South Carolina was represented in the U.S. Senate by the same two people, Fritz Hollings, and Strom Thurmond, for nearly 40 years. Thurmond died in office at 100 years old, and Hollings was in his early 80s when he gave up his seat.  

And while members of the Baby Boomer generation represent just one-quarter of the state’s population, its members occupied nearly half of the available seats in the S.C. House of Representatives and nearly two-thirds of the state Senate, according to a recent survey by the Center for Youth Participation in Politics at Rutgers University.

In the Senate, the average member was 20 years older than the median age in all of South Carolina.

“I think about all the candidates that I worked on this past cycle and the people that we helped elect to office, some of them were young, most of them are are not young,” said Leighton Gray Smith, a Republican campaign consultant based in Beaufort. “I feel like it has been hard for young people to get their foot in the door.” 

Young Republicans and Democrats say a lot of the reasons lie with the nature of the job. Lawmakers in South Carolina make just $10,400 annually (among the lowest rates of pay in the country) with significant workloads during the five months the Legislature is in session, eliminating most prospects who are unable to take significant time away from their professional lives.

Others say a share of the blame lies with state and local party leaders, who they claim overlook younger politicians as potential candidates and take great pains to protect successful incumbents. 

“I would definitely say that there is incumbency protection,” said Courtney McClain, a former Clyburn Fellow and president of South Carolina’s NAACP Youth and College Division. “I know having a new person is always something that’s kind of very scary for them. With that incumbent, you know that they will most likely win but, if you allow for a new person or a younger person with less experience to come in, they may be more prone to making mistakes or other things that they may be fearful about.”

Passing the torch

James Madison University history professor Rebecca Brannon, who has studied the relationships between age and politics, said that age has always been a significant factor in the American political system. Thomas Jefferson was a notable early example of this, with historical records showing Jefferson as a key figure in casting aspersions about George Washington’s fitness to serve as president while in office.

The reason age limits were never written into law like they were at the state level for positions like judgeships, Brannon said, had a lot to do with their own belief in the electorate’s ability to make up its own mind. The first demonstration of this came around the 1820s, when a newer, more working class brand of populism began to replace the political ideals espoused by the nation’s founding fathers.

“They do have the experience of feeling swamped by younger leadership and feeling a little burned, a little shocked, at being replaced generationally by a younger generation,” Brannon said. “Part of the achievement of the revolution was a lasting government, a nation where younger generations could take over. But still, it’s unpleasant to live through, and the founders were often shocked by how differently younger men thought than they did.”

Younger South Carolinians with political ambitions have now begun working to take matters into their own hands. Shortly after graduating from Bob Jones University, Meagan Ingersoll began to throw herself in local politics, volunteering for various campaigns and participating in party meetings. However, she often found herself on the sidelines as, around her, older candidates continued to run for office and win. 

“The more I was in the room, the more I realized that there wasn’t a space in Greenville tailored to young adults,” she said. 

In 2019, a then 26-year-old Ingersoll started the Greenville Young Republicans in an attempt to give young conservatives in the area a voice in the conversation. Three years later, she said, the organization has grown strong enough to begin recruiting, training and running its own candidates. One of those candidates, Joey Russo, just narrowly won their Republican primary against longtime Greenville County Councilman Joe Dill, while another, Michael Carter, lost their bid for county treasurer by just six points.

Another notable example of young people flexing their political muscle was in a recent statehouse race in South Carolina’s 101st District, where the South Carolina Young Democrats canvassed for Rep. Roger Kirby in his win over fellow Democratic Rep. Cezar McKnight, who drew his party’s ire for his anti-transgender position amid a Statehouse debate on banning transgender athletes from women’s sports. 

Ultimately, she said, it takes initiative to claim a seat at the table. 

“It’s not that people don’t want young people involved in politics,” Ingersoll said. “They want young people involved, but maybe they don’t know how to get to us. And that’s a both way problem. They may not be reaching out in the right ways. And we may not be showing up.”