|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
by DYLAN NOLAN
***
Five candidates have filed to serve the remainder of former state representative Robert John “RJ” May III‘s term in office after the West Columbia, South Carolina lawmaker was charged with ten federal counts of distributing child sexual abuse material earlier this year.
S.C. House District 88 (.pdf), a ruby-red seat located in the Midlands region of the Palmetto State, was held by May from November 2020 until last month – when May resigned in the aftermath of his CSAM charges.
***
May’s leadership of the S.C. Freedom Caucus – and targeting of mainline GOP candidates via his political consulting firm, Ivory Tusk Consulting – put a political bounty on his head, resulting in failed attempts to oust him in both the 2022 and 2024 GOP primary elections.
May’s political career was put on pause, however, when agents of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) special investigations unit (HSI) conducted a search warrant on his West Columbia residence on the morning of (August 5, 2024) in connection with a cyber tip indicating he had disseminated child pornography.
In the months between federal agents seizing May’s electronics and his eventual arrest, the iconoclastic lawmaker was uncharacteristically silent both in his political and personal lives – despite continuing to represent his district as a member of the S.C. General Assembly.
***
RELATED | RJ MAY TO REPRESENT HIMSELF AT TRIAL
***
Despite being charged with ten federal counts of distributing child sexual abuse material – and being confined to federal custody as he awaited trial – May didn’t immediately resign his elected office. Instead, he waited until August 11, 2025 to formally step down.
May’s resignation allowed S.C. election officials to schedule a special election to fill his seat for the remainder of his two year term. Four Republicans and one Democrat have filed to run against May.
***
THE CANDIDATES…
Republican candidates Brian Duncan, Lorelei Graye, John Lastinger and Darren Rogers recently pitched themselves to members of the Lexington County GOP at the group’s monthly meeting.
Duncan, who unsuccessfully challenged May in a last-minute write in campaign in the 2024 general election, was first to address the group.
Ducan introduced himself as a “lifelong resident of Lexington county,” and emphasized his current service as “commissioner with the Lexington County Recreation Agency commission” as well as his two decades of military service.
Duncan served 20 years in the S.C. Air National Guard (SCANG), retiring with the rank of Master Sergeant.
***
***
“My wife, Shannon and I own a small business together, and we have two wonderful children, Skyler and Taylor,” Duncan said.
Duncan touted an endorsement from S.C. attorney general Alan Wilson, whom he dubbed “the next governor of the great state of South Carolina,” as well as the endorsements of Wilson’s father congressman Joe Wilson and South Congaree mayor Cindy Campbell.
“As most of you already know, House District media has gone through a pretty rough time lately,” Duncan said. “Now our focus must be on moving forward.”
He added he was “here to listen, and most importantly, I’m here to earn your vote.”
At the conclusion of Duncan’s allotted three minutes, businesswoman Lorelei Graye – who unsuccessfully challenged May in the 2024 primary election – took the rostrum.
“I’m a Lexington County native, born and raised here in the state and in Lexington County,” she said. “I’m a business woman and owner.”
Graye also noted she was “a substitute teacher,” who also operates “a small farm.”
Gray didn’t shy away from her previous run against May, characterizing herself as “the unfortunate recipient of a lot of misinformation.”
***
“I want to set the record straight,” Graye said, noting her support of “nonprofits to support our veterans, our children, our animals here in the community,” as well as “the unborn.”
“My very first vote was Republican, and I have been a lifelong conservative and supporter of Republican Party,” Graye added.
According to Graye, the special election to replace May is “going to be different than what we experienced last year,” referring to it as “very short and fast.”
She pledged during that campaign not to attack other candidates, but to instead speak exclusively about herself and her vision for the state.
“I am not someone who is has powerful friends in the state,” she said. “I do not have any endorsement. I am running of my own free will in my heart to serve my community.”
According to Graye, her “global business” background spanning the disciplines of “accounting, tax and finance,” as well as “insurance, compliance and investment” have uniquely prepared her to help the state become more fiscally responsible.
***
“My work has been over the last decade centered around what I call DOGE before DOGE was DOGE, ” she said. “I’ve been pushing for transparency in a very opaque business world of private equity, and sometimes at my own risk to do it, because I believe in transparency.”
Graye founded ADS Initiative Inc, an organization which is attempting to standardize the murky world of private-equity financial reporting. Graye’s initiative has made progress towards its goals, evidenced by its amplification by investing behemoth Allianz SE.
“Sunlight is the best medicine to root out abuse, fraud and waste,” Graye said.
She attributed her desire to run for elected office to her Christian faith.
“My faith is the reason for my politics,” she said. “I’m a born again Christian. Jesus Christ is my Lord and savior, and I hope that you will get to know me as a candidate and not what has been written about me.”
Graye added that she hoped the candidate who prevails in the election, even if it isn’t her, will be “someone who puts the people above the politics, the people above the special interests, the people above the online chatter.”
Local pastor John Lastinger spoke after Graye, also beginning his address with a reference to his Lexington County roots.
“I was born here a long time ago,” Lastinger began.
***
***
The 72-year-old pastor also emphasized the length of his marriage and leadership of his congregation.
“‘I’ve been married this past month for 50 years to my wife,” Lastinger said, adding that he has been pastor at the Edge Church in West Columbia for nearly that same length of time.
“Forty-seven years, same church,” he said.
Lastinger spoke fondly of his sons and grandchildren.
“My boys, John and Robert, they’re 47 and 45 and they’re chicken farmers in Killian,” he said. “I’ve got six grand babies, and the oldest just started the University of South Carolina (as a) freshmen there this year – go Gamecocks.”
The pastor described leading outreach efforts in an attempt to bring peace and the word of God to troubled neighborhoods near his church.
“I love our community, I love our town,” he said. “I love the people here. I’ve given my life for this. I’ve been involved in all kind of outreaches in our community and West Columbia. I went to the police department here – this was years ago – and I said, ‘Where’s your worst conditions? Where do you have the most calls?'”
“I said, well, with your permission, that’s where I’m going, and took a team of people in there and turned that little community around,” Lastinger recalled, noting how he and his congregants “spent a long time there every week going into that community, knocking on all the doors we could, telling them about Jesus Christ and the hope that’s found in Christ.”
***
RELATED | FEDS PUSH BACK AGAINST RJ MAY’S COURT FILINGS
***
According to Lastinger, that hard work paid off.
“There’s a grandparent there that said, we don’t even want our children to go out and play in the streets in this community,” he recalled. “And after over a year of us being there, I got the testimony back that our kids are playing in the streets again.”
“If we don’t get involved, nothing’s going to change,” he said.
Scoring a laugh from the room, Lastinger noted that “as a pastor I’ve got to have a Bible verse,” but he joked that “I’m not taking an offering though.”
Lastinger cited Matthew 5:13 as a verse which motived him to run for elected office.
“You are the salt of the earth,” he said. “But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.”
“I’m going to try and guarantee that my children and grandchildren and in the future, that you will not be trampled underfoot by tyranny.”
Lastinger concluded by expressing his gratitude for the positive reception the group gave him.
“I see a lot of love out here and support, and thank y’all for allowing me to have this opportunity to serve y’all,” he said. “God bless you.”
***
***
The final Republican to address the room was Darren Rogers, who introduced himself as a business owner who had previously run unsuccessfully for elected office – but who felt compelled to do so again in the wake of May’s tenure in office.
“The last two-year period was just unbelievable, and I could not believe where we had gotten to in this area,” he said.
Rogers referenced the district’s loss of funds owing to House leaders determined to punish May’s recalcitrance.
“You have my word that I will fight to bring money back that we lost last year in the last two years because of what went on at the State House,” he said. “I will go back and we will reopen the tills and we will get our money.”
Rogers has chaired the Lexington County Mental Health board since 2007, and spoke extensively about his belief in the need for the state to reopen long term mental healthcare facilities.
“I’ve seen people that have had acid thrown on them, just unbelievable things that these people do,” Rogers said. “These people are truly not bad people, they just have mental illness and mental problems, and they need long term care before they’re released back into the public.”
“We must do something to deal with this immediately, and that’s why I am running for office for House District 88,” he added.
The aforementioned Republicans are all vying to compete in a special election against Joseph “Chuck” Hightower, the only Democratic candidate to file in the district.
***
***
Hightower is a decorated veteran who spent his career serving the nation in the U.S. Army where he rose to the rank of Colonel and oversaw healthcare operations for the Army Medical Department and Army Surgeon General, commanding a medical brigade of 6,000 troops during the initial phases of Operation Iraqi Freedom.
After retiring from the military, Hightower taught at Webster University in Columbia, and was named “professor of the year” on three occasions.
“I’m running to represent District 88 to bring the values of service and sacrifice I learned in the Army to the State House,” Hightower wrote on his campaign website. “We need serious leaders focused on supporting Lexington County, and we need to restore the sense of honor and duty in public service,”
Hightower lost his 2022 bid for Lexington County School District Two Board to Kevin Key by a mere seven votes.
A special partisan primary election for this seat is currently scheduled for Tuesday, October 21, 2025, with partisan runoffs scheduled for two weeks later – on November 4, 2025. The special election itself will be held on December 23, 2025.
***
ABOUT THE AUTHOR …
(Via: Travis Bell)
Dylan Nolan is the director of special projects at FITSNews. He graduated from the Darla Moore school of business in 2021 with an accounting degree. Got a tip or story idea for Dylan? Email him here. You can also engage him socially @DNolan2000.
***
WANNA SOUND OFF?
Got something you’d like to say in response to one of our articles? Or an issue you’d like to address proactively? We have an open microphone policy! Submit your letter to the editor (or guest column) via email HERE. Got a tip for a story? CLICK HERE. Got a technical question or a glitch to report? CLICK HERE.
1 comment
If Hightower rose to the rank of Colonel, then why does he have a star on his collar, indicating a one-star general? Did FITS demote him?