A straw poll was conducted at the Greenville County Republican Party Executive Committee Meeting.
John Warren led the straw poll with 185 votes compared to Henry McMaster’s 33, followed by 16 for Catherine Templeton, Kevin Bryant at 12 with John Yancey McGill rounding it out at three votes.
Courtney Warren introduced her husband, John Warren at the Executive Committee special meeting, detailing his military service as a US Marine captain in Iraq, leading troops on over 300 missions.
After returning home, Warren started Lima One Capital Group which turned into one of the fastest growing financial companies in South Carolina.
After his introduction, he made it clear that he is NOT a government-insider or a lawyer.
He is not controlled by any financial contributors compared to Henry McMaster who has received $115 thousand from SCANA and Catherine Templeton who has received tens of thousands of dollars.
He is campaigning on the following issues:
Santee Cooper
Santee Cooper has lost over $4 billion of taxpayer’s money. No members of the board have been fired and the chairman was allowed to retired with an $800,000 per year pension. John would correct this by firing the entire board on the first day, replacing them with a Quality Board of business leaders. He would call for a forensic audit to identify where the taxpayer money went.
Education System
The SC education system is dead last in the country at greater than $13,000 per year per student going to bureaucracies: he would provide better offerings and support school choice.
Roads
DOT has no strategic plan or vision. He would make it a cabinet-level agency, getting rid of the commission. He would roll the Sate Infrastructure Bank into the DOT. Roads would be considered for repairs by usage and growth of the area.
Planned Parenthood
He stated that life begins at conception and he would not sign off on any budget that funds Planned Parenthood.
State Contracts
He wants to see competitive bidding for all state government contracts.
Having become a viable, 2nd place candidate, he has become the target of negative ads.
In defense of himself, he concluded that the negative ads about Pro-Life and 2nd Amendment issues are not factual and that they misrepresent his positions. As a “conservative outsider,” he would enlist Carolinians for a stronger, safer South Carolina..