Excerpts from the Greenville News
Republican Jason Elliott won the nomination for re-election to his state House of Representatives seat in a landslide that has farther-reaching implications to the future of the state GOP.
Elliott handily defeated challengers Brett Brocato and Samuel Harms — Elliott 3,027, Brocato 1,866, Harms 288.
Elliott faces Democrat Bruce K. Brown in the November general election.
Elliott made it a point to highlight just how conservative he says his votes are — voting against last year's gas tax increase for road infrastructure; defending Second Amendment rights in part by calling for armed resource officers in every school and arming teachers if they possess advanced, military-level training; passing school-choice legislation; and receiving an endorsement from the anti-abortion group South Carolina Citizens for Life.
In the interest of supporting public safety, Elliott said he sponsored legislation that was enacted into law that re-institutes the requirement for vision screening for drivers.
To promote economic growth, he said he has led the legislative effort to allow technical schools to offer four-year degrees in applied manufacturing to help fill industrial jobs that pay well but remain empty.
Elliott also led the effort to remove the requirement that all high school students take the ACT college placement exam and allow them the choice to take a "career readiness test" instead to help remove what he sees as a stigma of attending technical college.