South Carolina Democratic state representative Krystle Matthews is once again facing public criticism as she attempts to unseat Republican Senator Tim Scott. In fact, she’s hearing demands that she abandon her campaign and go home. But it isn’t the state Republicans who are denouncing her. In the latest example of the political equivalent of a classic horror film, the calls are coming from inside the house! Following the release by Project Veritas of more damning comments that she was recorded making, Democratic leaders in South Carolina are saying that Matthews needs to step aside. And yet again, a member of the definitively “anti-racist” party in the United States was recorded making some decidedly racist-sounding statements about her own constituents who happen to be white. (Krystle Matthews is Black.) The following is from the Associated Press:
The South Carolina Democrat vying to oust Republican U.S. Sen. Tim Scott is facing calls from within her own party to fold her campaign, following the publication of additional leaked audio in which she appears to make disparaging remarks about her constituents.
The calls for state Rep. Krystle Matthews to withdraw just two months ahead of the general election came Thursday in reaction to leaked audio published by conservative activist group Project Veritas of Matthews speaking to one of its members, without her knowledge.
Sitting in a restaurant, Matthews, who is Black, is heard saying that she represents a “mostly white” district, adding, of white voters: “I keep them right here — like under my thumbs. … Otherwise, they get out of control — like kids.”
Matthews was elected in a majority-white district, but she had more to say about her own voters than just their alleged tendency to act like poorly-behaved children who need to be “kept under her thumb.” She was previously heard claiming that she was funding her campaign with “dope boy money.” In private, her opinion of white voters clearly doesn’t seem to be very high. For the record, these are not just allegations. She admitted to the Associated Press that it was her voice heard on the recordings.
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South Carolina’s Democratic nominee for Governor called her “toxic” in a recent op-ed. He also said that if any of their white counterparts had said such things about Black people, he would be calling for their immediate resignation. It was unclear whether he meant resigning from her position in the state legislature or simply dropping out of the Senate race.
So is this going to matter very much in the race for the Senate Majority Leader’s office? I will answer that question with an unambiguous “no.” If this were a Senate race in any other state with an even slightly purplish tone, I might fall back on my argument that all Senate candidates are interchangeable this year and say that she might still have a chance. But barring some sort of rupture in the fabric of space and time, Matthews never had a chance to begin with.
For all intents and purposes, Krystle Matthews was little more than a placeholder candidate to spare the state’s Democrats the embarrassment of not having a name on the ballot. When Tim Scott ran for his Senate seat in 2014 and 2016 he won by 24 points each time. His approval ratings in the state are the envy of most politicians. Just for the sake of thoroughness, I decided to go look at the RCP polling average in this race. But not a single major polling firm has even bothered to conduct a survey in Scott’s reelection bid all summer. If Matthews somehow managed to be declared the winner, you should really be running outside to look for a bright star in the east and three wise men bearing gifts, because it would be beyond miraculous.
I’m more interested in what Tim Scott’s future plans are. He has already stated that this will be his last Senate race and he’s always been a proponent of term limits, even if they are self-imposed. He’ll be 57 at the time of the midterm elections, which means he will be 63 when he wraps up his term in 2026. That would make him available for the early stages of the GOP presidential primary for 2028 if the Democrats somehow (God forbid) manage to keep the White House in 2024. In political terms, that’s an eternity away, so who knows what the political landscape might look like then? That’s just something for all of us to put a bookmark on for now.
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