As the state becomes more and more of a battleground for the Republican presidential nomination ahead of the February 2024 primary, the S.C. Republican Party held its annual convention in Lexington County.

River Bluff High School was the site for the high-profile May 20 affair, as one presidential hopeful (pharmaceutical entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy) appeared in person and three others (former President Donald Trump, former S.C. Gov. Nikki Haley and current Sen. Tim Scott) sending videos to address the crowd.

During the convention, Drew McKissick was re-elected as party chair, marking this his fourth term in the position. McKissick beat out Zoe Warren, Jeff Davis and Tim Cox for the title.

As the only candidate to address the convention directly, the 37-year-old Ramaswamy introduced himself as the first-ever millennial to run for president, stating that his generation is hungry for purpose and meaning and telling those in attendance that faith, patriotism, hard work, and family used to fill that void but have since disappeared.

“That's what leaves a black hole of a vacuum in our hearts,” he said, “and when you have a black hole that runs that deep that is when the poison fills the void ‘woke-ism’  ‘transgender-ism,’ ‘climate-ism,’ ‘covid-ism,’ ‘globalism,’ you name it. It doesn't matter what the poison is, that is just a symptom of our deeper hunger for purpose.”

Ramaswamy stated that he is an America First conservative and is the first presidential candidate to say he will put an end to race-based affirmative action.

Also on hand to address the crowd was the state’s Republican governor, Henry McMaster, who drew the ire of Democrats of his jab about them, “I look forward to the day that Democrats are so rare we have to hunt them with dogs,” a joke that often appears in his remarks.