Dear Friend –

Time after time, Governor McMaster and the Republican majority undercut the people of South Carolina, depriving them of the very resources they’ve earned, need and deserve. I’m fed up with it. Last week, I spoke on the floor of the SC Senate, urging my SCGOP colleagues to repay state unemployment benefits to hard-working South Carolinians who were cheated out of the unemployment benefits they’ve earned.

The back story: Gov. McMaster and his party always brag about how much money they save South Carolina employers each year, knowing that they’re “saving” employers by not raising unemployment benefits for employees in well over a decade. He knows this lands squarely on the backs of the hardworking people of the Palmetto State- and he does it anyway.

During the height of a global pandemic, I realized SC workers were receiving between $42/week and $326/week in unemployment benefits, regardless of how much money they earned annually. This is absolutely unacceptable, so I got to work! I introduced a bill in the Senate to raise those weekly unemployment benefits and provide some semblance of balance and relief.

To add insult to injury, when the federal government sent pandemic assistance to the working people of South Carolina, Gov. McMaster chose to cut the additional $600/week in federal unemployment benefits that unemployed South Carolinians desperately needed, knowing that the SC Dept. of Employment & Workforce (SCDEW) was already cheating SC workers out of state unemployment funding they had earned and should’ve received.

By illegally exercising discretion SCDEW didn’t have, and capping state unemployment benefits at $326 per week, even though some SC employees earned and should’ve received significantly more than that, many working people across SC who were unemployed through no fault of their own never received the full amount of unemployment benefits they were owed.

Not surprisingly, when my bill publicly exposed their illegal actions, lawsuits were filed by plaintiffs across South Carolina and instead of righting their wrong…the Governor and his SCGOP cohorts doubled-down and unconstitutionally attempted to give SCDEW retroactive discretion it never had.

I know this is getting into the nitty-gritty, but that’s the kind of legislator I am and it’s the kind of governor I’ll be. Issues like this can make or break working families that are already struggling to survive and fully recover. I’ve always been a fierce advocate for the working people of South Carolina.

Our June 14 Primary, where we can choose to put real issues like these front and center, will be here before we know it and I’m counting on your support to get me to the general election. Please, contribute $10, $25, or $50 to my campaign to put someone in the Governor’s Office who’s ready to address the real issues facing South Carolinians.

I’ve said it from the start, I’m running because South Carolina deserves a Governor who will actually invest in our people and our economy to provide much-needed balance and strengthen our communities. I’ve been working to do just that in the General Assembly and with your support, we’re ready to take our vision for a better, stronger South Carolina to the Governor’s Office.

In solidarity,

Mia