© 2026 South Carolina Public Radio
Donate
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
The State House Gavel
The State House Gavel shares updates about the South Carolina General Assembly, including legislative actions, debates and discussions. Featuring news and interviews, so you have access to the latest developments in policy and decisions that shape South Carolina’s future.

The State House Gavel: Senate votes to push out interim public health chief, tax conformity advances

South Carolina Public Radio | By Maayan Schechter,
Gavin Jackson
Published March 18, 2026 at 6:01 AM EDT
Senate Majority Leader Shane Massey, R-Edgefield, speaks in the Senate chamber at the Statehouse on March 17, 2026.
GAVIN JACKSON
Senate Majority Leader Shane Massey, R-Edgefield, speaks in the Senate chamber at the Statehouse on March 17, 2026.

It's Wednesday, March 18.

The Senate gavels back in for session at 1 p.m. As a reminder, the House is on furlough and will return next week.

Senate leaders say today could very well be a long day on the floor, as the upper chamber chews through consumable hemp legislation, H. 3924.

Amendments awaiting debate include whether to allow gummies, on-site drink consumption and Senate Majority Leader Shane Massey, R-Edgefield, said he suspects we will hear something around the use of consumable hemp for medical purposes.

"This thing is so tight (on votes), depending on how the details emerge, it really could throw everything off," he told reporters.

Either way, Massey said today won't be a debate where senators spend a few hours on the bill and adjourn, adding the chamber needs to spend several hours on the bill to get through some of the sticking points.

You're reading The State House Gavel, your daily reporter notebook by Maayan Schechter and Gavin Jackson that previews and captures what goes on at the South Carolina Statehouse.

Notebook highlights:

  • Senate moves to oust Gov. Henry McMaster's pick to lead public health department
  • Despite previous statements, tax conformity legislation moves forward
  • The latest in federal candidate filings as dozens more hopefuls pay the fees to get their name on the ballot
Reporters Maayan Schechter and Gavin Jackson, host of This Week in South Carolina and the SC Lede podcast.
Andre Bellamy/SCETV
Reporters Maayan Schechter and Gavin Jackson, host of This Week in South Carolina and the SC Lede podcast.

Senate puts gov's public health director on exit notice

The South Carolina Senate on Tuesday sent a clear message, backed up with a bill, to the governor's choice to lead the state Department of Public Health: it's time to go.

Almost a year after the Senate Medical Affairs Committee declined to advance Gov. Henry McMaster's appointment of Dr. Edward Simmer, the Senate unanimously voted to pass legislation that would effectively fire Simmer on the last official day of the legislative session, May 14.

The legislation sponsored by Senate Majority Leader Shane Massey — S. 922 — largely deals with gubernatorial appointments and the advice and consent power of the Senate.

For example, under the bill, it removes the Senate advice and consent requirements for more than 30 different appointments. And it spells out how and when the governor can make interim appointments when the legislature is not in session.

But in a significant tweak to the bill Tuesday, the Edgefield Republican and Charleston Republican Sen. Matt Leber proposed a change that would effectively remove Simmer in May. It was added to the legislation by voice vote.

Under the change:

  • The director's office at public health is vacant as of May 14
  • The director can no longer carry out the responsibilities of that job and must vacate the premises on or before May 14
  • McMaster can name a current public health employee as acting director until a new director is appointed and confirmed by the Senate, but it cannot be Simmer in an acting or interim capacity

With only a usually perfunctory final vote remaining, Sen. Jeffrey Graham, D-Kershaw contested the bill, a procedural move that senators will have to take extra maneuvers to overcome.

For background: In April last year, the Senate Medical Affairs Committee refused to move Simmer's nomination forward, largely given pushback from conservative Republican groups and legislators over his role in the department's response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Simmer, a retired U.S. Navy psychiatrist, was confirmed in 2021 to run the former Department of Health and Environmental Control, a state agency massively overwhelmed by the pandemic as it dealt with considerable leadership turnover.

The legislature later split that department into two, and McMaster nominated Simmer to lead the newly-created public health department — an agency Simmer has been running on an interim basis ever since.

McMaster's office did not comment Tuesday. But the Columbia Republican, who has the rest of the year left in office, has consistently backed his nominee.

In a statement, the public health department said in part that if S. 922 becomes law, "DPH will carry out its obligations to implement the law as it pertains to the agency."

Given Simmer's continued interim status, despite senators' vote last year, Massey told reporters "we feel like we need to force it."

Massey also noted that McMaster has had a difficult time identifying a replacement.

Hear more from Massey below:

S.C. Senate Majority Leader Shane Massey, R-Edgefield, on S. 922 that moves to oust DPH Director Dr. Edward Simmer 3.17.26

Read more:

Dr. Edward Simmer listens as the South Carolina Medical Affairs Committee gave his nomination to be the first director of the South Carolina Department of Public Health an unfavorable vote on Thursday, April 3, 2025, in Columbia, S.C.
Jeffrey Collins/AP
/
AP
Dr. Edward Simmer listens as the South Carolina Medical Affairs Committee gave his nomination to be the first director of the South Carolina Department of Public Health an unfavorable vote on Thursday, April 3, 2025, in Columbia, S.C.

Tax conformity moves ahead

The 2026 legislative session is only roughly three months old.

We're in Week 10, remember?

But it's been long enough that, on multiple occasions, House and Senate leaders have said out loud and to reporters that tax conformity — typically a yearly non-issue effort to conform the state's tax code to the federal government's — either wasn't going to be discussed before April 15, or wasn't going to be debated at all.

But the pull to cut more taxes, or at least the fear of being seen as refusing to cut more taxes, has apparently led to a change of collective hearts.

Last week, right before the House left for furlough, the lower chamber passed legislation to conform the state's tax code for 2025 to the federal changes made in President Donald Trump's so-called One Big Beautiful tax policy law signed last year.

The cost? A one-time bill of a cool $288.5 million.

And on Tuesday, the Senate Finance Committee nearly unanimously voted to send the bill to the Senate for a vote.

State Sen. Sean Bennett, a Dorchester Republican and financial planner, called the legislation a "bad idea." Bennett and Sen. Greg Hembree, R-Horry, voted against moving the bill forward.

"One of the best things that we did was decoupling the federal return to take control of our tax policy," he told colleagues.

The Senate is "handing it off to an entity that hasn't balanced a budget since 2001," he added. "(It's) bad policy on top of some really good policy."

The legislation is likely to get a lengthy debate on the floor, with potential tweaks made, hinted Senate Finance Committee Chairman Harvey Peeler, R-Cherokee.

Missed the hearing? You can hear part of Senate President Thomas Alexander, R-Oconee, and Peeler's remarks below:

Senate President Thomas Alexander, R-Oconee, and Senate Finance Chairman Harvey Peeler, R-Cherokee, on tax conformity 3.17.26

Senate Finance Chairman Harvey Peeler, R-Gaffney, speaks with Judiciary Committee Chairman Luke Rankin, R-Horry, in the Senate chamber at the Statehouse on March 17, 2026.
GAVIN JACKSON
Senate Finance Chairman Harvey Peeler, R-Gaffney, speaks with Judiciary Committee Chairman Luke Rankin, R-Horry, in the Senate chamber at the Statehouse on March 17, 2026.

2026 candidate filings piling up

Today is Day 3 that candidates can file for a variety of South Carolina public offices, ranging from federal to statewide, state House and various local seats.

Filing doesn't close until March 30, but Tuesday plenty more candidates paid their fees and filed to get their names on the primary and, ultimately, the general election ballot.

On Tuesday, Dr. Annie Andrews, the top Democratic challenger in the U.S. Senate race looking to oust Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham, made it official and cut the $10,400 check to get on the 2026 ballot.

Andrews, who unsuccessfully sought the 1st District House seat in 2022, has already received support from EMILYs List, a national group that helps elect Democratic female candidates, and raised about $4.3 million, with $1.6 million cash on hand. And, hoping to ride a wave in the general, says polls show her in reaching distance of Graham.

Can anyone beat Graham, who raised nearly $20 million by the end of last year, with still $13.4 million cash on hand — the most money of any Senate Republican in the 2026 cycle per the Federal Election Commission?

History shows it's been an uphill battle — for both sides of the political aisle.

Graham will have his group of GOP challengers June 9. That includes Republicans Pat Herrmann and Mark Lynch, who both filed. Lynch loaned himself $5 million, with $4.5 million on hand.

Jason Elliot Brenkis and Kasie Whitener have both filed for the seat under the Libertarian Party banner.

In another packed federal race, the list of candidates vying to succeed 1st District Congresswoman Nancy Mace, who is running for governor, piled up on Tuesday:

  • Jenny Costa Honeycutt (Republican)
  • Mac Deford (Democratic)
  • Max Diaz (Democratic)
  • Nancy Lacore (Democratic)
  • Bill Reeside (Libertarian)
  • Mark Smith (Republican)

You can keep track of all the candidates in every race here.

More than 1.5 million South Carolinians voted early, either by in-person early voting or by-mail absentee ballot, according to the State Election Commission. The 2024 general election is Tuesday, Nov. 5.
GAVIN JACKSON

Statehouse daily planner (3/18)

SC Senate

SC governor

  • 9 a.m. — Gov. Henry McMaster to attend the University of South Carolina Brain Health Center ribbon cutting in Columbia

Statehouse clips from around the state
Tags
SC News SC News
Maayan Schechter
Maayan Schechter (My-yahn Schek-ter) is a news reporter with South Carolina Public Radio and ETV. She worked at South Carolina newspapers for a decade, previously working as a reporter and then editor of The State’s S.C. State House and politics team, and as a reporter at the Aiken Standard and the Greenville News. She grew up in Atlanta, Georgia, and graduated from the University of North Carolina-Asheville in 2013.
See stories by Maayan Schechter
Gavin Jackson
Gavin Jackson graduated with a visual journalism degree from Kent State University in 2008 and has been in the news industry ever since. He has worked at newspapers in Ohio, Louisiana and most recently in South Carolina at the Florence Morning News and Charleston Post and Courier.
See stories by Gavin Jackson