On August 3rd, during the WIS NEWS 10 SCGOP U.S. Senate debate, Palmetto Promise President & CEO Wendy Damron had the opportunity to ask candidates about the SAVE Act. The candidates: Russell Fry, Darline Graham, Mark Lynch, Ralph Norman, and Mark Sanford were posed a questions covering a variety of topics that challenge South Carolina

I recently joined Live 5 News to help moderate the runoff debate for Congressional District 1 between Mark Smith and Jenny Costa Honeycutt.  The candidates tackled a number of tough issues facing South Carolina and the United States, including housing affordability, the future of Social Security, parental rights, and the rise of artificial intelligence (AI).

On Tuesday, June 16th, Palmetto Promise Senior Fellow Dr. Oran Smith served as a moderator for the first (and only!) gubernatorial runoff debate between Attorney General Alan Wilson and Lieutenant Governor Pamela Evette.  Held on the campus of Coastal Carolina University, the debate allowed candidates the opportunity to comment on a wide variety of topics,

On March 29th Dr. Oran Smith went on Joey Hudson’s podcast to discuss the REINS Act. Check out the video below. Watch this video on YouTube

Last week, I testified before the South Carolina House Judiciary General Laws Subcommittee on Representative Weston Newton’s H.3857, a bill that would permit home delivery of alcohol.  We wrote about a similar bill during the last legislative session.  The below article, originally published in WIS10, highlights the bill hearing as well as some of my

The below article, originally published in FITSNews, highlights a recently-released Palmetto Promise poll measuring conservative voter attitudes toward lawsuit reform and the 2026 gubernatorial race.  Specifically, this article explores lawsuit reform in South Carolina – a previous article explores the gubernatorial race results. Columbia, S.C. (FITSNews) – Last week, we spoke with leaders of South Carolina’s

Palmetto Promise Institute is a co-amici in the following brief, filed in NRA v. Vullo.  Advancing American Freedom, leading a coalition of 52 amici, filed an amicus brief in NRA v. Vullo, urging the Supreme Court to hear the case. In this case, the New York government pressured insurance companies to drop coverage of insurance plans

This commentary by Palmetto Promise board chair Phil Hughes was originally published in the Post and Courier. From stem to stern, South Carolina’s lawsuit system is broken — and anyone who’s run a small business, owned a restaurant that offered alcohol or driven a truck knows it. Sky-high insurance rates, nuclear verdicts and the chilling

Palmetto Promise’s report Sandlapper Shakedown is cited in this piece originally published in Forbes. South Carolina has been among the most successful states recently in attracting individuals, families, and employers from other states. In fact, last year the Palmetto State’s population grew faster than all 49 other states. State lawmakers in South Carolina and Governor

Senior Fellow Dr. Oran Smith was interviewed for this article, originally published in American Family News. An annual report from U-Haul suggests most Americans who moved last year settled in the South, continuing an annual trend, but a new southern state now tops the list. The line of moving trucks fleeing California and New York