People mingle at Mount Pleasant’s Hobcaw Yacht Club along the Wando River as a setting sun glows against the windows. This is the golden hour, that sliver of time just before day’s end.
And time is winding down for Democratic candidate Michael Moore as he stands before the crowd, trying to convince voters to send him to Congress. The 61-year-old has never run for office.
“Some of you may have heard the story of my great, great grandfather,” says Moore as he begins to introduce himself.
Moore comes from a long line of public servants including his great-great grandfather Robert Smalls, a Black Civil War hero who once represented what is now the 1st Congressional District.
“And I have the profound honor to be running for the same seat that he served in 150 years ago,” Moore tells dozens of men and women who are seated around him.
In recent years, the district, which stretches along the state’s southern coast, has become one of the most competitive. Democrat Joe Cunningham flipped it for the first time in decades in 2018. Now Moore is challenging the Republican incumbent who flipped it back in 2020, Nancy Mace.
But with just days left until election day, this year’s race has been far from competitive for the political newcomer trying to take on a Trump-backed candidate. And it may have nothing to do with Moore. The district was redrawn two years ago to lean Republican and excludes some 30,000 Black voters.
Still, Moore, a longtime businessman and former CEO of Charleston’s new International African American Museum, sticks by his campaign. He says he’s running as an alternative to partisan politics.
“I think a lot of times these wedge issues are created to scare people, to divide people,” says Moore.
He says one of those wedge issues is immigration. He believes immigrants have been unfairly demonized for political gain.
Moore says he’s been to the border and found mostly young families looking to escape violence, not commit it. He doesn’t believe immigrants are a threat to South Carolinians but says reform is needed to deal with the large numbers of people seeking safety.
Moore says he’s more concerned about the reproductive rights of women, the cost of living and the impact of climate change on the district's vulnerable coast.
Mace says she too is concerned about those issues but disagrees with Moore on immigration.
“I went out to lunch the last two days and both times there was a group of individuals that did not speak any English here in South Carolina,” says Mace during a zoom interview.
Mace believes an influx of illegal immigrants who are willing to work for less money threatens jobs in South Carolina. And, she says, they do commit violent crimes even though studies show undocumented immigrants are less likely to offend than people who were born here.
Last month, Mace accused Charleston County’s sheriff of letting immigrants “run wild” and shared her concerns on the U.S. House floor.
“I rise today to let the Charleston County sanctuary Sheriff in South Carolina know she can run but she cannot hide,” Mace said.
Sheriff Graziano’s response was swift and sharp.
“Nancy Mace is full of sh*t,” Graziano said. “She clearly doesn’t understand the law.”
So, why is Mace lashing out on the sheriff instead of Moore, her opponent?
“It’s a new kind of era in American politics with so many people just trying to win the next headlines,” says Gibbs Knotts, a political scientist at Coastal Carolina University.
He says the race has been even less competitive than he expected. The Cook Political Reports now calls it “solid red”.
But what if Black voters who have not been exiled from the district turn out in record numbers with Vice President Kamala Harris running for president? Knotts says it’s possible but former president Donald Trump is expected to win the area, and he has endorsed Mace.
“I’d give the slight edge to Nancy Mace in terms of the coattail effect,” says Knotts. “But you never know. We have an African American woman running for the first time ever.”
For now, the congressional candidates are busy making their final pitches.
“I think we have an opportunity to not only make history but to double down on Democracy, to double down on inclusion,” says Moore.
“I’m going to tell you the truth. And I promise you, no one will work harder than me for South Carolina,” says Mace.
This is the golden hour for their campaigns with just five days left until the 2024 election.
