2026 SC House District 33 Election

*CANDIDATES' VIEWS IN THE Q&AS LINKED BELOW DO NOT REFLECT THE VIEWS OF ONESPARTANBURG, INC. CANDIDATE RESPONSES ARE THE CANDIDATES' OWN WORDS, HAVING COME FROM EMAILED RESPONSES.*

REPUBLICAN PARTY CANDIDATES

TRAVIS MOORE (i)

Website: WWW.Travismooreforsc.com

The Office You're Seeking: State Representative, SC House District 33

Tell us about yourself, your involvement in our community, and why you are running for the SC House.

I grew up in Roebuck, graduated from Dorman, and went on to The Citadel before beginning a career of military service that continues today in the South Carolina Army National Guard. After deployments to Kosovo and Afghanistan, I came home, earned my law degree, and served Spartanburg as an Assistant Solicitor before entering private practice. My family is deeply rooted here—Jenny and I are raising our six children in the same community that shaped us, and we stay involved through our church and local organizations.

What is the role of state government, if any, in economic development and corporate recruitment? How can the State help raise per-capita income in Spartanburg and across the state?

State government plays a central role in shaping economic development by setting pro‑business policies, investing in workforce development, and supporting recruitment efforts that attract new industries. It can help raise per‑capita income in Spartanburg and statewide by strengthening talent pipelines, improving infrastructure, and expanding incentives that encourage higher‑wage job creation.

Comprehensive Tax Reform remains a high priority in the SC General Assembly. Income, property, and sales tax are all being discussed for reform. As a State Representative what would be your approach to good tax policy for the State?

Good tax policy should be simple and focused on helping South Carolinians keep more of what they earn. My approach would emphasize lowering and simplifying income tax rates, providing responsible property tax relief for homeowners and small businesses, and reviewing sales tax exemptions without creating new burdens on working families. Any reform should be paired with disciplined state spending and a commitment to keeping South Carolina competitive for jobs and investment.

Childcare across South Carolina is often unaffordable and inaccessible, damaging our state’s economy and outcomes for our children. Data shows that a lack of childcare options prohibits some people from participating in the workforce. In South Carolina, the state’s prime-age labor force participation rate of 81.1% falls 2.5% points below the national average. As a state representative, what are some solutions you have for this crisis?

Childcare shortages are keeping too many South Carolinians out of the workforce. I would focus on increasing the number of childcare providers by streamlining regulations, encouraging employer‑supported childcare, and offering targeted tax incentives that help working families afford care. Strengthening training for childcare workers and partnering with local organizations and faith‑based groups can also expand options quickly and cost‑effectively.

What are the greatest challenges facing your District and what will you do as the Representative to address them?

Our district’s biggest challenges are managing rapid growth, improving infrastructure, and strengthening our workforce. As Representative, I would work to ensure our roads, schools, and public services keep pace with growth; expand job‑training options so more people can enter the workforce; and support policies that help families and small businesses succeed. My goal is to make sure Spartanburg’s growth translates into real opportunity for the people who live here.

Please identify any other issues or concerns that influenced your decision to run for this office.

At the heart of my decision to run is a simple belief in service. I’ve spent my adult life serving our state and nation in uniform and serving this community through my work and involvement here at home. It is my honor to serve the citizens of District 33.

DEMOCRATIC PARTY CANDIDATE

CLEMSON TURREGANO

Website: Clemson@Clemsontsc.com

The Office You're Seeking: SC House District 33

Tell us about yourself, your involvement in our community, and why you are running for the SC House.

Why I am running: I believe in a free, smart, and strong District 33 and South Caroline Free: Trust in government, transparent in process, accountable in decisions. Smart: Schools that put students in the center of the conversation, not biased culture issues. Strong: Business enabling a livable community as neighbors, not users.

Who I am:

• Military brat who grew up around the world before his family settled in a small Florida community.
• Lived in the family owned mobile home park throughout middle and high school.
• Learned hard work in a family-owned business.
• Husband of Susan for 40 years.
• Father of two sons. Grandfather of two, a great boy and girl.
• Joined the South Carolina National Guard during the Iran hostage crisis.
• Served 24 years in the U.S. Army.
• Tank commander, military professor, international negotiator, and strategic planner.
• Graduate of The Citadel, Syracuse University, and the U.S. Army War College.
• Built an international leadership consulting business from the ground up.
• Trained leaders on six continents.
• Senior Leadership Fellow at Furman University.
• Dedicated to protecting taxpayers, strengthening families, and preserving the Upstate.

How I will govern: Free: I am available and open to help. Let’s talk data centers, political accountability, and growth issues for our district. Smart: I support putting the student’s development and learning at the center of any conversation about education. If it does not have to do with making a student a better learner, citizen, or student, why are we having this conversation? Strong: I believe businesses are the anchor to our sustained growth. I also believe the best businesses are those who take care of their workforce through training, development, healthcare, childcare, and parent care.

What is the role of state government, if any, in economic development and corporate recruitment? How can the State help raise per-capita income in Spartanburg and across the state?

Currently, these could be seen as two unrelated questions. The assumption is that incoming businesses have high wages in mind. I wish that were true, but data bears out that not to be the case. So to answer two questions in one, I would ask if OneSpartanburg has actively sought out employers who want to pay a better wage -- find them, bring them in, and make them welcome. The role of State Government should support efforts like the one I outlined above.

South Carolina should have a fair, transparent tax system in which everyone contributes to the services and infrastructure that make our state prosperous. Taxpayers with greater ability to pay should contribute an appropriate share, working families should not carry a disproportionate burden, and corporations benefiting from South Carolina’s workforce, infrastructure, and communities should contribute fairly as well. Tax incentives should be targeted, transparent, accountable, and tied to measurable public benefit—not special treatment for the well-connected. I would build the policy around five principles: 1. Ability to pay. Tax burdens should take account of taxpayers' economic capacity rather than place a disproportionate burden on households with limited disposable income. 2. Equal treatment. Similarly situated individuals and businesses should generally be treated similarly; preferential treatment should have a clearly stated public purpose. 3. Corporate accountability. Economic-development incentives should demonstrate measurable benefits—such as jobs, wages, investment, or community benefits—and include transparency, periodic review, and accountability provisions. 4. Protect working families and small businesses. Tax reform should distinguish between ordinary household/small-business income and policies primarily benefiting very high-income taxpayers or large corporations. 5. Broaden the base before increasing rates. Regularly review deductions, credits, exemptions, FILOTs, and other preferences to determine whether they still produce enough public benefit to justify their cost.

Currently, the information I have says South Carolina already recognizes the public-private childcare connection: its current Child Care Program Credit gives employers a tax credit for establishing or operating child care programs, including 50% of qualifying startup expenses up to $100,000 and certain operating expenses. The state also identifies lack of child care as a barrier to labor-force participation and uses grants to encourage new centers in areas with shortages. This is not enough.

Affordable, reliable child care is essential infrastructure for South Carolina's working families and our economy. Parents cannot participate fully in the workforce if they cannot find safe, dependable, affordable care for their children, and businesses cannot attract and retain workers when child care is unavailable.

South Carolina should build a stronger child care system through partnerships among families, employers, schools, child care providers, and state and local government. Rather than relying on a single solution, I support a public-private approach that expands the supply of quality child care while strengthening the workforce that provides it.

Expand Public-Private Child Care Centers. Create competitive state grants and matching funds to help businesses, nonprofit organizations, local communities, schools, and other partners establish or expand licensed child care centers, particularly in communities where affordable child care is difficult to find. State investment should leverage employer, philanthropic, local, and other private investment whenever practical.

Strengthen Employer Child Care Incentives. Expand South Carolina's existing employer child care tax incentives to encourage more employers to establish on-site or nearby child care centers, partner with existing licensed providers, reserve child care slots for employees, or help employees pay for qualified child care. Incentives should be designed so that small and medium-sized employers can participate through shared or regional child care partnerships rather than requiring every business to operate its own center.

Make Schools Partners in Child Care. Provide grants and appropriate tax incentives to eligible educational institutions that establish or partner with licensed child care centers. Schools with appropriate facilities can become important community child care partners while also creating opportunities for career and technical education, internships, apprenticeships, and training for future early-childhood professionals.

Build the Child Care Workforce. Invest in training and professional development for child care workers through high schools, technical colleges, colleges and universities, and participating child care centers. South Carolina should create clear pathways from high-school career programs through industry credentials, certificates, associate degrees, and advanced early-childhood education programs. Scholarships, apprenticeships, and employer-supported training should help South Carolinians enter and advance in the profession.

Study What Works and Invest Accordingly. Commission an independent statewide study of child care access, affordability, quality, staffing, and successful child care models in South Carolina and other states. The study should identify national best practices, examine rural and urban needs, evaluate employer-sponsored and public-private models, determine the true cost of providing quality care, and recommend sustainable financing options. Future state investment should be guided by measurable evidence about what improves access, affordability, child outcomes, and workforce participation.

Require Accountability for Public Investment. Programs receiving state tax incentives or grants should meet appropriate health, safety, licensing, and quality standards and report measurable results. South Carolina should track additional child care slots created, costs to families, workforce participation, employee retention, provider staffing, and other outcomes so taxpayers can see whether these investments are working.

The goal should be straightforward: make quality child care more available and affordable for South Carolina families while helping employers find and retain the workers they need. Child care should be viewed as part of South Carolina's workforce and economic-development infrastructure—an investment in children, families, businesses, and the state's long-term prosperity.

What are the greatest challenges facing your District and what will you do as the Representative to address them?

Basically, no one in Spartanburg cares about anything South of Camp Croft. And that is fine with my opponent. Anything along the Rt 56 corridor is fundamentally unknown to anyone inside Spartanburg City Limits. The County is allowing Cross Anchor and Enoree to be forgotten.

Here is what I would do. I would orient towards the District 33 Free-Smart-Strong Growth and Rural Preservation Agenda.

FREE • SMART • STRONG A Different Standard for Rural South Carolina

These five priorities reinforce one another.

FREE communities give people the opportunity to work, raise families, build businesses, and choose to remain in the places they call home.

SMART communities demand transparency, plan before they grow, and ensure that taxpayer investments produce measurable public benefits.

STRONG communities have the health care, infrastructure, schools, businesses, and institutions necessary to withstand change and prosper.

That gives us a straightforward test for decisions affecting District 33: Does it make us more FREE? Does it expand opportunity and give people greater control over their economic future?

Is it SMART? Is it transparent, fiscally responsible, evidence-based, and producing measurable public benefit? Does it make us STRONG? Does it strengthen our families, businesses, schools, infrastructure, and communities for the next generation? District 33 does not have to choose between economic decline and uncontrolled growth. We can protect what makes our rural communities special while creating opportunity for the people who live here. FREE enough to pursue opportunity. SMART enough to plan for the future. STRONG enough to prosper together.

Do you believe the state should pass legislation related to AI infrastructure? If so, what would ideal legislation look like?

South Carolina does not need to choose between technological investment and responsible government. We can welcome investment while insisting on transparency. We can support economic growth while protecting communities. And we can build the infrastructure of the future without asking existing taxpayers and ratepayers to shoulder unreasonable costs. A one-year moratorium gives South Carolina the opportunity to get this right before decisions are made that could shape our communities and electrical system for decades. Pause before we permit. Separate computing from power generation. Protect taxpayers and communities. Establish the rules. Then grow responsibly.