The states’ rights advocate once quipped that “if at first you don’t secede, try again” and proposed creating a study committee for the state to create its own currency. He railed against welfare programs, arguing if people are able-bodied and don’t work, “they shouldn’t eat.”
He championed legislation that aligned with his conservative values but did not pass, including bills aimed at protecting fetuses at conception, bills to exempt South Carolina-made guns from federal regulation and to allow gun owners to carry guns without a state permit, as well as legislation to instruct students on the use of firearms.
He voted against state budgets and against the lowering of the Confederate flag from the Statehouse grounds following the shooting deaths of nine African-Americans by a white supremacist at a Charleston Church.
“It didn’t take any courage to take it down,” he said, “especially in my district, it took courage to keep it up.”