Carter Files to Challenge Harrell

Larry Carter has one message for S.C. House Speaker Bobby Harrell.

"Twenty years, that's too long," Carter said.

Carter signed up to run for the Democratic nomination for the S.C. House of Representatives District 114 seat last Friday, and though he wants to replace Harrell, Carter said he has no plans to follow in his footsteps.

"I support term limits and I will serve no more than eight years," Carter said.

Carter added that his first priority will be to repeal the state law that prohibits public employees from forming unions. Carter said he has been a Democrat for 30 years and a civil rights and pro-union activist his entire life, and he faults the state's prohibition on public sector unions for the deaths of nine Charleston firefighters in the 2007 Sofa Superstore fire.

Carter is also a big proponent of green energy.

"Imagine a wind turbine on every corner," Carter said. "When the wind blows it's free. It don't burn anything, it don't poison any little girls like my sister with Strontium 90 or coal arsenic and coal hydrochloric acid and all that other fracking stuff."

"We can be a net energy exporter," he continued. "We can be in transitional fuels, growing sweet potato ethanol instead of importing Iowa corn ethanol. And we need to be building hydrogen fuel cell vehicles right here, we've got a UAW plant up in Florence. It's a General Motors plant, they knew how to build them 20 years ago and they only built a dozen of 'em. Now why aren't we building completely zero emissions vehicles? Water vapor does not hurt anybody, but arsenic and lead does hurt a lot of people."

Carter said he plans to educate voters about his plan for the state and he intends to find 7,000 new voters in District 114. Despite Harrell's incumbency, Carter said because of redistricting the current speaker will have to convince a lot of new voters to cast ballots for him to keep his seat.

"I'm going to find 7,000 new voters, because they're there," Carter said. "People turn 18, people move into the district. Of course we have been redistricted, so Bobby doesn't know who all his so-called voters are. We're going to give him a hell of run for the money."