Political Insurgents Are In Vogue

Recent elections show us that there is a trend favoring political insurgents. In our 2015 municipal elections, outsider Wiley Johnson defeated incumbent Mayor Bill Collins in Mt. Pleasant. Members of the grassroots group Save Shem Creek swept out three incumbents on the Mt. Pleasant Town Council.
In the Presidential primaries of both parties, insurgents are gathering steam. Outsiders Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders won the New Hampshire primaries by large double-digit margins despite not having Super PACs and big donors backing them. Jeb Bush, who finished 4th in New Hampshire, spent $1200 per vote earned, compared to $80 per vote for Trump.
I see this anti-establishment mood intensifying at all levels of government. More than 70% of voters in a recent Rasmussen poll think America is moving in the wrong direction. Congress has favorability ratings in the single digits in some polls. Voters in both parties and the large swath of voters who view themselves as Independents don’t see their lives getting better.
It appears that more people than ever before are concerned about America’s future and participating in the primary process. We have seen record-high turnouts in Iowa and New Hampshire. Republican turnout was more than 50% above the 2012 primary contests in both states, and many of the voters had never voted in a Presidential primary before.
As the co-chair of the Trump campaign in Charleston County, I have set up volunteer training sessions at sites all over the county. Before we start the training, we ask people to introduce themselves and tell everyone why they support Mr. Trump. Most of our volunteers have never been involved in a political campaign before, ranging from Vietnam Veterans in their 70s to high school students.
The insurgency movement gained some momentum in 2014 when Randolph-Macon University economics professor Dave Brat defeated House Majority Leader Eric Cantor in the Republican primary for Virginia’s 7th Congressional District. Cantor had more than $5 million in his campaign account, compared to Brat’s $200,000.
Dave Brat had no name recognition and very little financial support. He had two paid staffers in their 20s who began the campaign without an office, working on their laptops in coffee shops and restaurants with WiFi. What he did have was grassroots support from the Richmond Tea Party and other liberty groups in the district.
Brat also received support from conservative commentators Laura Ingraham and Ann Coulter, who viewed Cantor as out of touch with Republican principles. Ingraham wrote that Cantor “kicked the electorate to the curb, sold out our (conservative) values, misrepresented our views, and looked down at the very people who sent him into office.”
The theme of Brat’s campaign was following the Virginia Republican Creed, which focuses on free markets, fiscal responsibility, and limited government. It mirrors the principles in the Republican Party platform, which Cantor and many of our Republican elected officials at the federal, state and local levels have deviated from.
Rep. Brat has a superlative conservative record during his first term in Congress. He has opposed the budget bills that called for massive deficit spending, opposed the authorization for President Obama to negotiate the Trans Pacific Partnership trade deal, which will hurt American manufacturers, and voted against Speaker John Boehner.
In many ways, Rep. Brat is similar to our Congressman Mark Sanford, who first got elected to Congress in 1994 as an insurgent candidate. They both sit on the House Budget Committee and are frustrated by the unwillingness of House leaders to balance the federal budget or even reduce the annual $500 Billion annual deficits. They both support replacing the federal income tax code with the FairTax.
I believe the frustration with the status quo at the federal, state and local levels will lead to a wave of insurgent candidates in 2016. South Carolina is rated 36th in the latest Tax Foundation Business Tax Climate Index, and our state remains near the bottom in median household income. Our primary election filing period runs from Mar. 16 to Mar. 30. I hope a lot of good people step up and run for office in an effort to make our government more responsive to the taxpayers and citizens!
John Steinberger is the former chairman of the Charleston County Republican Party, a leading Fair Tax advocate, and a West Ashley resident. He can be reached at John.steinberger@scfairtax.org.