Libertarian Jeremy Walters won 47 percent of the vote for state house in South Carolina’s 26th district in 2012, coming within inches of being elected to the highest-level office that the Libertarian Party has achieved in its history.
Winning a legislative seat in South Carolina would be especially noteworthy, given that the state is anything but a bastion of liberty and fair elections. New Hampshire, Alaska, and Vermont are the only states where a Libertarian has won a state house seat, last achieved in 2000.
Walters won his impressive vote total in spite of the fact that his Republican opponent, Raye Felder, raised and spent seven times as much money as Walters did.
Now he’s taking on incumbent Felder for round two, with no Democrat in the race. His campaign has issued phone blasts, telemarketing phone calls and fliers to voters in the district.
Walters’s 2012 race was aided by the fact that Felder had to run as a nonpartisan “petition candidate” after being struck from the Republican ticket on a technicality. Although Walters won’t have the same advantage this time, he has among the best chances of winning a state legislative seat that the LP has seen in years.
Because he campaigned extensively both in 2012 and again in 2014, he has built a name for himself in the district and has become a force to reckon with.
Walters has been active since his 2012 campaign. He successfully fought off Republicans who tried to knock him off the ballot in 2012.
Last year, he filed a lawsuit in an attempt to remove Democrat Marlin Kimpson from the 42nd district Senate seat. Kimpson won in a special election last October, but in violation of the law. If successful, Libertarian Alex Thornton, who lost in the race, would have been seated by default.
Walters is running on a bold platform to end the state income tax.
“Ending the state income tax will put more money in the budgets of working families and create thousands of new private sector jobs,” he said. “And it’s the only way to force the legislature to cut waste.”
Now serving as vice chairman for the South Carolina LP, Jeremy Walters is in the final stretch of a long-fought campaign. His website is: waltersforhouse.com
