Good morning. It's a very cold Tuesday.
It's the second week of the 2025 legislative session.
As a reminder, the SC House and Senate will be in what's called a perfunctory session and will not be meeting for floor debate or votes. Both chambers are prioritizing committee work so that they can advance bills to the floor.
Several lawmakers are also coming back from inauguration activities in Washington. Rep. Travis Moore, R-Spartanburg, had official duties at the inauguration.
Proud to see South Carolina’s National Guard representing our state so well during the inauguration! pic.twitter.com/l2rgAbL4pf
— Gov. Henry McMaster (@henrymcmaster) January 21, 2025
This is The State House Gavel, a new daily reporter notebook by reporters Gavin Jackson, Russ McKinney and Maayan Schechter that will preview and capture what goes on at the South Carolina Statehouse this year while lawmakers are in session.
Notebook highlights:
- US Sen. Lindsey Graham sounds off on Biden last-minute pardons, lawmakers desire to reopen VC Summer for more energy business.
- Social issues pop up as key focus for Republican groups, lawmakers and potential 2026 gubernatorial contenders.

Lindsey Graham takes a call with SC media
A key Trump ally, US Sen. Lindsey Graham held a call with South Carolina reporters Monday post inauguration to sound off on President Donald Trump and South Carolina politics.
Graham gaggle moments:
- On using the Alien Enemies Act to fight drug cartels: "A national security threat, by designating the cartels as a foreign terrorist organization, it gives us more tools to go after them. The 1798 law ... allows us to remove groups that are a threat to our country, and people don't realize that the gangs, throughout Latin America, Mexico and that part of the world have set up shop in our major cities in Atlanta and Chicago."
- On final Biden pardons: “I was very disappointed because I think it's sort of a political grandstand theater trying to continue the narrative that this work that somehow President Trump is going to turn the country upside down and go after people he doesn't like, just to continue that storyline. As a parting shot to President Trump, I thought it was more political theater and quite frankly, a cheap way to leave office.”
- On resurrecting VC Summer reactor work: “... I talked to the governor about this. We cannot give up on nuclear power. It was a disaster trying to build these two new nuclear power plants. So I'm going to talk to President Trump about small modular reactors as a way to get more nuclear power into the system. But, yes, I would be open to trying to revitalize that. Trust me, South Carolina needs as much power as we can get.”
- On Trump's wish to rename Gulf of Mexico: “You never know with him. I don't know. Do you have to reprogram GPS or change your map? I don't know. He says he wants the Panama Canal back. You know, let's see how that plays out. ... I thought it was a mistake to give it away, but, again, there was an element to this speech that I think Americans are yearning for, that we're the winners again. You know, we've got to be strong. We're going to be tough. We're not going to, you know, meddle in other people's business, but we're not going to be trifled with.”
Over/under on whether he beats his 26 Sunday show appearances in 2025: "I think with Trump you probably might want to do the over. My pastor had noticed that too. In 2025, I think I'll be out there a lot selling what he's trying to do. And I think Sunday shows kind of shapes what happens the next week.”
Graham appeared Sunday on CBS's "Face the Nation" and said his Senate Budget Committee will use reconciliation to get Trump priorities through Congress. The State House Gavel notes the constant TV appearances doesn’t hurt when it comes to fundraising (see $16 million 2026 war chest) for reelection either.
You can listen to Graham's entire conversation with reporters:

Social issues vs. leadership priorities
Competing press conferences in the Legislature's first week of session illustrated the jockeying bound to happen through May among GOP leaders to get their favorite bills the momentum to move in the next few months.
You had the conservative House Family Caucus outlining their socially conservative and Christian-focused legislation. Then the conservative Palmetto Family coalition, asking Statehouse leaders to codify budget proviso (one-year law attached to the House budget) 1.120. The proviso mandates that people can only use K-12 bathrooms and locker rooms that correspond to the gender assigned to them at birth.
“I never dreamed in a million years that I would have to take the bathroom to the courtroom,” Attorney General Alan Wilson, one of the top names on the 2026 gubernatorial watchlist, said last week at the Statehouse as another possible hopeful, Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette, watched from nearby.
“We shouldn't have to be having this conversation, but because there are radical thinking people in this world, people who don't put the same level, who care concern and the privacy and safety of our children, and we have to codify this," he added.
In the background: Last month, Wilson was in front of the US Supreme Court supporting fellow Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti in the state’s fight over its gender-affirming medical care ban for transgender youth, similar to a law on the books in South Carolina. Wilson is hardly the only Republican politician — or possible gubernatorial candidate — to talk about issues surrounding the trans community. US Rep. Nancy Mace — yes, she's another possible statewide candidate — has made the anti-trans legislation her main talking point over the last several months, which includes her rhetoric about the first trans member of Congress, Sarah McBride.
What happens next: State Sen. Wes Climer, R-York, filed his so-called “Student Physical Privacy Act” — S. 199 — on the first day of session. The bill aims to codify that language into law. We’ve heard leaders say over and over again that social issues are taking a back seat to weightier issues, like energy, education and taxes. But in a two-year session ahead of a wide open GOP primary for governor, will they be able to avoid it?

Daily planner (1/21)
SC House
- 2:30 p.m. — Blatt 321 -- Ways and Means Higher Education Subcommittee
Agenda Available
Live Broadcast
Live Broadcast - Audio Only
SC Senate
- 10 a.m. — Gressette 105 — Judiciary subcommittee S.184
Agenda Available
Live Broadcast
Live Broadcast - Audio Only - 1 p.m. — Gressette 308 — Finance Constitutional Subcommittee
Agenda Available
Live Broadcast
Live Broadcast - Audio Only - 1 p.m. — Gressette 209 — L.C.I. Labor and Commerce Subcommittee
Agenda Available - 1 p.m. — Gressette 207 — Senate Education Subcommittee on S. 169
Agenda Available - 2 p.m. — Gressette 308 — Full Finance Committee
Agenda Available
Live Broadcast
Live Broadcast - Audio Only - 2 p.m. — Gressette 105 — Judiciary Subcommittee on S.35, S.36, S.37 and S.38
Agenda Available
Live Broadcast
Live Broadcast - Audio Only
Statehouse clips from around the state
- Former Columbia councilman Cromartie, previously jailed for tax evasion, pardoned by Biden (The State)
- $71 million nursing home for SC veterans opening in Sumter (SC Daily Gazette)
- Nurses push Lowcountry hospitals to eliminate surgical smoke. Now they want a state law. (Post and Courier)
- 'Don't turn against, lean into each other,' President Biden urges in Charleston (SC Public Radio)
