South Carolina House of Representatives Speaker and Sumterite Murrell Smith has endorsed Donald J. Trump for the 2024 presidential election.
"I have to make a decision as to where we are in this country and who can best perform the job, and we have one candidate that stood out, Donald Trump, who has been in that position and did a great job, especially for South Carolina," Smith told The Sumter Item on Tuesday.
Former Gov. Nikki Haley and U.S. Sen. Tim Scott are also in the running ahead of next year's Republican primaries. Smith spoke highly of both but still sides with Trump, calling him the "one choice."
"I got a lot of respect and admiration for [Nikki Haley] and Sen. Scott," said Smith, who was elected to Sumter's House District 67 in 2001 and as speaker in 2022. "I served with both of them in the South Carolina House of Representatives."
The Sumter Item requested comment from the state-local presidential candidates and did not hear back.
William Oden, chairman of the Sumter County GOP, said he is confident the 2024 presidential election will prevail Republican.
"Our country is in desperate need of new leadership as the Biden Administration continues to push the disastrous Bidenomics, lawlessness and criminality we have seen the past 2.5 years," he said. "Thankfully, the Republican Party has several outstanding candidates running to save our country from further destruction, including President Trump."
"Speaker Smith has the responsibility as an American citizen to research and determine for himself who he feels is the best candidate for our next president. I read his entire statement, and he clearly articulates why he made this decision. He also praises our two candidates from South Carolina as fantastic individuals."
Smith said Trump has a proven history of bringing more money into South Carolina.
"If you look at the trade deals that he helped implement, those have been beneficial to our automotive manufacturers here in South Carolina. He had an America-first, pro-business stance that incentivized businesses to reinvest into the United States, and we are seeing the fruits of that labor right now here in South Carolina," he said. "He was the president who pushed through the infrastructure money for the completion of our port that we have been trying to accomplish since about 2013."
Reporting from The Associated Press in 2022 called the Port of Charleston the economic heart of South Carolina as large companies like BMW, Michelin and Boeing all use it.
Smith said Trump's indictments - the third of which came last week in connection to the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol - had no impact on his decision to endorse the former president and that he is confident Trump will be exonerated of his 78 criminal charges.
"I have faith in the justice system and the criminal justice system, and when you look at this, it is easy for prosecutors to charge people, and the firewall between charging and convicting is a jury of their peers, and when I look at these indictments and what's happening with our justice department and the prosecutors on the state level, it's clear to me that the motives are political," he said.
State Republicans have set Feb. 24, 2024, as the date for their 2024 presidential primary.
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