COLUMBIA, S.C. — Next month, voters will decide if Rep. Joe Wilson deserves another term representing South Carolina's Second Congressional District or if challenger Adair Boroughs should replace him in Washington.
The Second District contains several counties in the center of the state: Richland, Lexington, Aiken, Barnwell, and Orangeburg.
Wilson, a Republican, has held the seat since 2001. Boroughs, a Democrat, is new to politics.
News19's J.R. Berry had a chance to sit down with them before the race and asked each of them the same questions about the economy, the coronavirus, and other key issues.
Here are their responses. You can also see what they had to say in the video above.
Adair Boroughs
JR: Why are you running for office?
Boroughs: I wanted to get something done here, really do the work. We have a large swath of the district that doesn't have access to rural broadband including my hometown of Williston in Barnwell County. We need broadband. We've needed it for a long time. We need infrastructure. We have a lot of problems across Lexington County and other parts of the Midlands with water drainage issues and we need resilient infrastructure because these storms are coming through. There is a lot that needs to be done here and we need someone who will come in and do the work. And with seeing all these projects that just weren't happening because they didn't have a federal partner and I said I want to get these things done. So we're running for office.
JR: How about jobs in South Carolina. Especially the Second District. What would you do to bring more jobs to the area?
Boroughs : Several things. First of all we have to get past this virus. So for that we need widespread testing. It's something I was pushing early in March when the current congressman was voting against free coronavirus testing. We are a tourism state so we have to get on top of that with widespread testing to bring people to our state so they feel comfortable coming here.
Second, we've got to deal with the child care crisis. It's gotten worse during COVID. And this is something we don't hear a lot of our political leaders talking about maybe because they're not parents of school age and preschool age kids. I am. And this is a big problem. We have parents with kids six and under almost half of them have left the workforce, reduced their hours, because of child care. We have half the child care centers that we had pre COVID in South Carolina. This is a huge issue. And you know the federal government sent more bailout money to a single airline than to the entire child care industry. If we want to get our economy booming we have to get child care back in place where our parents can go to work.
We also need infrastructure. We have businesses that don't want to come here because the infrastructure doesn't exist, whether it's broadband in rural parts of the district, they don't have roads that they feel are adequate to get their products to market, [or] they are worried about these issue of flooding because we haven't dealt with our water infrastructure. These are the things that we need to do to make sure that we have a growing economy for generations to come.
JR: Is it your belief that state and federal leaders have not done enough when it comes to fighting the virus?
Boroughs : I think we missed an opportunity early on to have widespread testing. When we knew in January and February that this thing was coming, we could have put things in place to have widespread testing and contact tracing to help limit its impact. And at that time we had leaders that were saying this wasn't a problem who even called it a hoax. So I think that was a missed opportunity. Now that we are where we are, we have to get those things in place so we can recover.
JR: Let's say you win the Second Congressional District on November 3rd and President Trump is reelected how would you work with President Trump? You mentioned infrastructure. That's something he's talked about over the years. How would you work with the President when it comes to infrastructure and when it comes to cutting taxes in South Carolina.
Boroughs : I don't care whose idea it is or what party has it if it is good for South Carolina, if it is good for the people of my district, I'm all for it. I'm all in. So there are things that I agree with President Trump on like his ban on offshore drilling. I'm sure that there can be some infrastructure projects here I would be in favor of. And I will work with anyone to get things done in South Carolina. I think right now we have a lot of leaders that like to grandstand with national talking points instead of actually working with people to get things done and that's what I want to do."
JR: What do you think is the biggest issue right now in this race?
Boroughs : I think it's work ethic frankly. You know I grew up in a double-wide trailer in a tiny town and ended up a the top of my class at one of the most elite law schools in the country. I've grown a non-profit from nothing that put over $1.5 million back into the pockets of working-class South Carolinians. You don't come where I come from and accomplish what I have accomplished in life without a good head on your shoulders and one heck of a work ethic. That's what we need in this district. To get these projects done that have been sitting idle for decades.
JR: We're a couple of weeks from election day what final message would you give viewers?
Boroughs : I'm looking for a chance. Just a chance. This is a two year term, so if people aren't happy with what I've done or don't feel like I've fulfilled my promises they can vote me out in two short years. But our current congressman first took elected office when I was in preschool, I just turned 40, it is time to give someone else a chance to get these things done and that is all I'm asking."
JOE WILSON:
JR: You were first elected to this office in 2001, why are you running again?
Wilson: I feel that I can be effective the years of service I've had with the seniority that I've achieved on the Armed Services Committee which would be so helpful to Fort Jackson, to the Savannah River Site that I represent, to McEntire [Joint National Guard Base, Shaw [Air Force Base]. Additionally I believe that my service on the Foreign Affairs Committee, it's very helpful, the senior status that I have there, which actually I used there to promote better relations with countries that are important to us like France. And I'm talking about jobs with Michelin in Lexington. And then I worked very closely--last month I was at a dinner I'm the co-chair of the Korea caucus, and so Samsung is expanding right there in Prosperity and many of the employees live in the Second District. So over and over again I have the opportunity to really I believe be really effective accountable and accessible to the people of the Second District.
J.R. Obviously this has been a year unlike any other with the coronavirus. A lot of critics out there saying not enough is being done by state and federal leaders when it comes to trying to do something about this virus. Do you think enough has been done congressman?
Wilson: I'm really pleased and I just was with the governor at the [University of South Carolina] and I thanked [USC President] Bob Caslen for what he's done. Actually J.R. it's my view that people have really been working together and I was with State Rep. Jerry Govan who's the chairman of the Legislative Black Caucus of South Carolina and he and I were talking about how this is within South Carolina been very bipartisan of everybody working together to the benefit of the people of South Carolina. And then on the federal level initially it was bipartisan the CARES Act the paycheck protective program how helpful that's been working with the Small Business Administration Greg White good people here in South Carolina. And then sadly it has become partisan but I'm really grateful that Sen. Mitch McConnell is going to be trying again to bring up further legislation to address the shortfalls that we have that need to be addressed.
JR: Let's suppose for a moment. Suppose Joe Biden wins the presidency on November 3rd. Your reelected on November 3rd. How will you be able to work with a President Biden to bring say jobs to South Carolina, infrastructure for South Carolinians, and cut taxes?
Wilson: I would be concerned. Because Mr. Biden has indicated he's going to increase taxes. That is a prescription for no jobs. His platform would actually be catastrophic to the people of South Carolina really to the country. But I will make every effort to work together. When Mr. Obama was president we worked together on different issues. But there's really a philosophical difference and sadly from my perspective the Democratic party has been significantly radicalized and the socialists have extraordinary influence of all things. We would think that socialism which is failed everywhere would have no appeal. But it does. Everything free for everybody has an appeal but it's wrong and so I'll be working to really promote the limited government expanded freedom which is indeed a prescription for growing jobs.
JR: Joe what is the biggest issue in this race? We are just a couple of weeks away from election day. What is the number one issue?
Wilson: The number one issue that I run into is restoring the economy and jobs. With the downturn that we had. Incredibly enough it began February 28 that's when the President was in North Charleston. I was there with Senator Lindsey Graham and Tim Scott and Gov. Henry McMaster how uplifting it was. JR on that day the unemployment rate for African-Americans for Asian Americans for Hispanic Americans was the lowest in history. It was the lowest unemployment for women and young people. But then we had the effects of the virus and shutdown and so the good news is that with the CARES Act half the jobs have been recovered. But we need to recover the other half. So its my view that the main issue would be to reestablish the incredibly fast-growing economy that we had just seven months ago, and that's what I'll be working to do.
JR: What final message would you give voters here?
Wilson: My message is that I'm very humbled and inspired by the people I represent and I would urge people to consider voting absentee in person. The voter registration offices across the district of Richland, Lexington, Aiken, Barnwell, Orangeburg, people can vote at their registration offices and their branch offices and I'm really hopeful that we can reduce the level of lines because I want the health and safety or our citizens on November the 3rd. And a great thing is that people who have health issues can vote curbside people can go by and stay in their car and vote. I'm a former election commissioner I'm so proud of the election commissions of the second district for being proactive to work with the citizens and then the General Assembly, Gov. McMaster and all led the effort that everybody can vote absentee. That the reason of course is the virus.