2024 Election: South Carolina House District 123

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HILTON HEAD, S.C. (WSAV) – One of the races we will closely watching on election night is in the Lowcountry: South Carolina House District 123.

50-year Hilton Head resident Lisette Cifaldi is facing off with the incumbent Jeff Bradley, who is looking for his sixth term in office.

Bradley is a staunch conservative who believes his time in office and ability to work with a close-knit Republican supermajority in the state legislature benefits the district.

He says that experience makes him the best candidate for the job.

“I am on the side of the supermajority and I’m more apt to get legislation passed if there’s something that we need done,” explains Bradley. “But I also have the experience  of being involved in the state of South Carolina and I actually have a seat at the table.”

Cifaldi says she isn’t afraid of being the “new kid in town”. Her experience as a therapist helps her connect with people.

“One of the things that I was taught growing up was to preserve the relationship,” says Cifaldi. “We’re allowed to have disagreements.  We’re allowed to have debates. But in the long run, the relationship matters. That is a core value of mine.  So I think that core value lends itself very well in the state House  to be able to talk to people who don’t think the same way as me,  maintain that relationship and perhaps  bring them over a little bit.”

“I think that question, honestly,  or a lot of people is probably what intimidates them and feels like they don’t have a shot or they are not going to make a difference, and I think that is inherently dangerous. I think that we always have to believe that our voice matters.”

“With no women in the room. We are missing a very important demographic and important information,” continues Cifaldi. “When women are in state legislatures, you see more family friendly and children friendly legislature proposed. What I found in this whole process is it’s not just women’s voices that are not being heard. “

Education reform and school choice is also a key topic for both candidates,

“The Constitution says that we’re required to provide education for children,” explains Bradley. “It doesn’t say that it has to be public education. So we’re trying to create as many venues as possible so that it will kind of the belief that competition sharpens the skills of all the participants. It is the belief that competition sharpens the skills of all the participants. So if you have a choice in schools,  then your larger monolithic, monolithic system of the public school could be challenged to improve.”

“The voucher program that Jeff Bradley championed had a lot of flaws in it,” says Cifaldi. “It was a three-year pilot program. In the first year, they were intending to spend $30 million to send 5000 kids in underperforming schools to private schools. We have 750,000 kids in our schools.  So that doesn’t make fiscal sense to me that we would do that.”

The candidates also have very different views on reproductive rights and the current abortion ban in South Carolina

“The current legislation that exists in South Carolina went through a full process,” says Bradley. “During that process lesson. Weston Newton and I worked very hard to get exceptions for, in the case of life of the mother, rape, incest and fetal fatal fetal anomalies.  And we were able to get that in. And if we hadn’t done that, it wouldn’t have it wouldn’t have been in the bill.  So to be accused of  being insensitive to that, I’m just not I do believe  that  protecting unborn children  has validity.”

“That’s not true.  It’s just simply not,” says a defiant Cifaldi. “His very first vote was for no exceptions.  So if he was going to fight for those exceptions, he should have fought for them out the starting gate. So he has consistently voted for the most extreme abortion bans over the course of his ten years in office.”

“I listen to what is said on both sides. I try to accommodate the opposing views wherever possible,” said Bradley. “But when it comes down to a philosophical difference, there are times when I can’t agree with them.

“If you look at his voting record over the years, it’s gotten more and more conservative,” said Cifaldi. “And so I think as a district,  we’re not getting more and more conservative.  I think that  I just don’t think that his voting record  represents the district any longer.”

“I think him actually sponsoring an abortion ban, with no exceptions  is an indicator of his conservative voting record,” said Cifaldi..”I think the voucher program and the way he set that up is an indication of that because,  you know, he ran on it being as something that’s going to help,  you know, children in underperforming schools have an option. But then he removed the income requirement.  So that means it’s not necessarily benefiting, you know, maybe economic equality, challenged children in underperforming schools. It then benefits wealthy individuals with their kids already in private schools and so that is much more of a conservative bent.”

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