Originally Published by the South Carolina Daily Gazette.
Andrew Shue, founder of the South Carolina Forum, talks about the initiative at a news conference Wednesday, Feb. 25, 2026, on the first floor of the Statehouse in Columbia, South Carolina. Legislators behind him, left to right, are Democratic Sens. Tameika Isaac Devine of Columbia, Ed Sutton of Charleston, and Jeffrey Graham of Camden. To his right are Catherine Glenn Foster, SC Forum’s director of strategic partnerships, and Rep. Beth Bernstein, D-Columbia. (Photo by Seanna Adcox/SC Daily Gazette)
COLUMBIA — If you had the power to solve one problem in South Carolina, what would it be?
That’s the question asked by the South Carolina Forum, an initiative that seeks to bring together a true sampling of people across the state to find consensus-driven solutions that legislators can turn into law.
The effort officially launched Wednesday at the Statehouse with legislators of both parties who’ve committed to participate in the process and potentially sponsor the resulting ideas.
“If we start facing a problem together instead of facing off, we can start seeing the common values we have, start focusing on the future,” said Andrew Shue, a self-described social entrepreneur who founded South Carolina Forum last year.
It’s part of his broader goal to “build a new path” out of the nation’s polarizing political gridlock by giving voice to the people.
The lofty plan starts with collecting ideas online. The goal is to get at least 100,000 South Carolinians over the next two months to register and answer what’s important to them. Participants can see what others have posted and give a thumbs up or thumbs down.
Several hundred people have already submitted ideas as part of the platform’s testing phase. They range from the very specific — higher fines for littering — to broad needs such as improving health care, stopping overdevelopment and, of course, the expected “fix the roads.”
Online voting will decide the priority issues. Only items that at least 70% of participants agree on will advance. Next comes online or in-person meetings with roughly 1,000 volunteers.
The process culminates in 100 people — representative of South Carolina’s population — meeting for three days in Columbia to draft a few proposed solutions that legislators could file as bills for the 2027 session.
There’s no agenda, said Trav Robertson, the forum’s Democratic co-chair.
It’s about bringing together Democrats, Republicans, independents and new voters for a deliberative conversation about issues important to them, and “that’s exciting,” said the former state Democratic Party chairman, who got involved after meeting Shue last year.
“If we can get 100,000 people to participate online and then bring a sampling of those people together, we’ve changed the dynamic of discourse in America, or at least the discourse in South Carolina.”
The Republican co-chair is Dave Wilson, a longtime GOP strategist whose former roles include state Senate GOP spokesman.
“We are building Noah’s Ark. Everybody comes in pairs,” Shue said.
That includes hiring both GOP and Democratic marketing firms to encourage participation.
The same process is happening this year in Nevada and New Hampshire, though South Carolina’s forum is the first of 2026 to launch, said Shue, a founder of The People.
The nonprofit organized a 50-person civic assembly in New Hampshire in 2024. This year’s effort is scaled up, starting with the technology platform to get more people involved.
All three are early-voting states in the presidential nominating calendars. With wide-open contests in 2028, candidates of both parties will be crisscrossing South Carolina regularly next year. Potential contenders are already visiting the state.
“Our goal is to tell a story, not only within the states, that this works, but to the presidential candidates who will be coming through all three states,” said Shue, who’s perhaps best known by his role as Billy Campbell on the 1990s hit TV show “Melrose Place.”
“People are hungry to be heard. People are also exhausted by what they see, and they’re looking for something hopeful,” he said. “We’re working on a project to bring the American people together to create the 70% agenda to find our path out.”
Participants will expect real results.
Legislators have an advisory role in the process to help “us steer away from the rocks” to keep proposals pragmatic, said Shue, who lives in New Jersey.
On the other hand, if lawmakers in 2027 ignore widely supported solutions that result from the process, they may invite a different sort of civic engagement.
Rep. Brandon Newton, the House assistant majority leader, said he sees South Carolina Forum as a tool that will help legislators do their jobs — in a way that’s better than polling.
“In polling, we’re asking the question. In this, the voters are telling us open-ended what they want,” said the Lancaster Republican and co-chair of the SC Future Caucus. “It’s a very different process, and I love the idea we’ll have real data on what people want.”
Another participating legislator, Rep. Neal Collins, said he’s optimistic about the effort’s success.
“I think in our current climate, the loudest, most extreme voices are the ones who get the most attention, and I appreciate the effort by SC Forum to try to elevate the voices of those who are not extreme and those who understand we need government to govern, and it doesn’t have to be in a partisan nature,” said the Easley Republican.
“It’s idealistic. It’s hopeful,” he said.
But it’s a goal worth pursuing, he added: “I’m more concerned about our state if we just give up instead of saying, ‘Hey, we need to get back to working on serious matters and supporting serious people.’”
