To most USC students, McMaster is a building on the far side of campus that you may have had an art class in freshman year. Recently, it has also become known as the name of South Carolina’s new governor, Henry McMaster.
Henry McMaster is a rather new name to most of those here at school that have grown up in South Carolina politics. Mark Sanford was the governor for most of the 2000’s, until 2009 when he was caught having an affair with an Argentinian woman. He now represents South Carolina in the U.S. House of Representatives.
After Sanford, came Nikki Haley, who ran for governor in 2010, then ran for re-election and won in 2014. She brought industry to South Carolina, handled the 100-year floods of Columbia, and when tragedy struck in 2015 with the Charleston Massacre she used that momentum to finally have the Confederate flag taken down from the statehouse.
Haley was an up-and-coming Republican star, who would have most likely moved onto the national stage soon enough, but few expected it would be as soon as 2016, halfway through her second term as governor. When Donald Trump was elected, he needed people for his cabinet. While Haley was good in crisis situations and state issues, she did not have the diplomacy and international presence that was needed for her to become a bigger player in the Republican Party.
Trump fixed that by placing her as the ambassador to the United Nations. But wait, with Haley gone, who would lead the lovely state of South Carolina? The answer: Henry McMaster, her Lieutenant Governor.
McMaster has a long history in state government, going all the way back to the ‘80s, when then President Ronald Reagan appointed him as his first U.S. attorney. His major accomplishment during this period was “Operation Jackpot” where he investigated and later convicted over 100 international drug smugglers. Later on, as South Carolina’s attorney general, he pursued more criminal convictions for perpetrators of domestic violence and child predators. His last position was as South Carolina’s Lieutenant Governor, and that’s how he later became governor once Haley left.
As governor, McMaster has stuck to most of the traditional Republican ideals. He doesn’t support “Obamacare”, something that he speaks openly about since he believes that it is an overreach of the government’s power like most other Republicans. He also recently signed an executive order that would no longer allow state funding to be used towards clinics or hospitals that are affiliated with abortion clinics. McMaster is not in favor of raising taxes, which was reflected in his veto of the state gas tax purposed by the South Carolina legislature to help repair the state’s crumbling infrastructure. His veto was later overridden by the legislature and is now in effect.
One of his biggest points of criticism though comes from his membership of an all-white country club here in Columbia—something that is not necessarily surprising to see in the South, but more disheartening to see in a state official.
There is hope, though. McMaster has recognized the urgency of the state opioid epidemic, and has made promises that something will be done to combat it, even if he doesn’t know where the public funds may come from. He also handled the recent emergency of Hurricane Irma well with quickly issuing a state of emergency and visiting shelters soon after the storm passed. However, time can only tell if McMaster will truly master his new role as governor of South Carolina.
