Zenya Gantt, a South Carolina State University student, speaks from the podium at King Day at the Dome beneath the SC State University flag in Columbia, South Carolina on Monday, Jan. 19, 2026. (Adrian Ashford/SC Daily Gazette)
COLUMBIA — At this year’s King Day at the Dome, Democrats seeking statewide office this year pitched themselves to voters, urging them not to lose hope that Democrats could triumph in Republican-dominated South Carolina.
And U.S. Sen. Cory Booker, a potential 2028 presidential candidate, told the crowd gathered for Martin Luther King Jr. Day to look to civil rights history for inspiration.
“How dare we surrender to cynicism or fall to fear, thinking that the obstacles before us are greater than who we are and who we can be together,” the New Jersey Democrat said in his keynote address. “American history, if it is anything, it is a perpetual testimony to the achievement of impossible things against impossible odds.”
A crowd of several hundred gathered in front of the Statehouse on Monday for the annual Martin Luther King Jr. Day celebration organized by the NAACP’s state chapter.
South Carolina State University’s flag flew from the dome, marking the first time the state’s only public historically Black university received that honor.
The annual event started at Zion Baptist Church on Washington Street before attendees marched the roughly half mile to the Statehouse, led by drummers from SC State’s marching band.
The school’s football team triumphed last month in the Celebration Bowl, winning a 40-38 fourth-overtime victory to become national football champions for historically Black colleges and universities. Several legislators who graduated from SC State, including Rep. Hamilton Grant and Sen. Deon Tedder, asked Gov. Henry McMaster to fly the school’s flag to honor that victory.
This is believed to be the first time an HBCU’s flag has flown from the dome.
A crowd of people gathered to listen to speeches from state and national Democratic leaders, including U.S. Rep. Ro Khanna, another potential 2028 contender, and former Democratic National Committee Chair Jaime Harrison of Columbia.
SC voters will elect 7 constitutional officers in 2026. So far, most aren’t a contest.
Harrison highlighted the upcoming November elections for statewide offices.
“We need some of you to run,” he told the crowd, saying he hopes to see Democrats compete for every office on 2026 ballots.
So far, Democrats have announced bids for only two of the seven elected constitutional offices, state Democratic Party Chairwoman Christale Spain told the SC Daily Gazette last week.
Those are state superintendent of education and governor. For two offices, only the incumbent Republican has announced a run for re-election. For two open offices, a single Republican has announced a campaign. And for state attorney general, the competition so far is only among Republicans.
“Our call to action is plain,” Spain said Monday about 2026 elections. She urged people to ensure they’re registered to vote and bring friends and neighbors with them to the polls.
State Rep. Jermaine Johnson, a Richland County Democrat running for governor, said King laid the groundwork for his political ambitions.
“I will be the first Black man as the governor of South Carolina,” he said to cheers from the audience.
Johnson announced last week that he’s not running for his state House seat again, saying he wants to focus on his campaign for governor.
No Democrat has won a statewide race in South Carolina since 2006. It’s been 28 years since voters elected a Democrat as governor.
Three Democrats running to unseat Republican U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham also took to the podium to make their case to voters.
Dr. Annie Andrews, a Charleston pediatrician, highlighted that Harrison had endorsed her as the party’s nominee to challenge Graham. Andrews, who tried unsuccessfully in 2022 to unseat U.S. Nancy Mace in the coastal 1st Congressional District, told the crowd she was used to being disappointed by the government but, quoting King, urged them to “never lose infinite hope.”
Brandon Brown, an Upstate business owner, called Graham a “domestic terrorist” and described U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement as the modern-day “Ku Klux Klan.”
Catherine Fleming Bruce said South Carolina can make history by electing her, since no Black woman has represented the Palmetto State in the U.S. House or U.S. Senate. Four years ago, the Columbia author and activist ran to unseat U.S. Sen. Tim Scott but was defeated in a Democratic primary runoff.
Sylvia Wright, who’s running for state superintendent of education, criticized the Trump administration’s moves to dismantle the U.S. Department of Education, saying it would exacerbate inequality in the state’s schools.
During a stop in South Carolina last month, Education Secretary Linda McMahon pledged that the federal government would continue to fund programs. She contends the dismantling is about reducing bureaucracy to better serve students. A complete dismantling of the agency created by Congress in 1979 would likely require congressional action.
Wright said the state needs a plan, should the Trump administration succeed in its efforts, and promised she would focus on rural school districts like Dorchester 4 (based in St. George), where she worked as a district coordinator before resigning last fall to campaign.
A scattering of people throughout the crowd held signs criticizing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement with messages including “Stop ICE terror” and “we protect our neighbors.”
Khanna, a congressman from California’s Silicon Valley, told the crowd that his grandfather participated in Mohandas “Mahatma” Gandhi’s nonviolent protest of British rule in India, which influenced King’s nonviolent approach in fighting for civil rights. Both were assassinated: Gandhi in January 1948, months after India and Pakistan became independent nations, and King in April 1968. King would have turned 97 on Jan. 15.
Khanna, whose parents immigrated to the U.S. from India, has said that his grandfather spent time in jail with Gandhi.
On Monday, he said immigrants are part of America’s future.
“I believe we can become a composite nation,” he said. “I believe that is our destiny — to be a multiracial, multicultural democracy.”
King Day at the Dome has become an essential stop for Democrats seeking their party’s nomination and the crucial support of South Carolina Democratic primary voters.
SC State University flag to fly from Statehouse during King Day at the Dome
After Booker’s address, legislators who asked for SC State’s flag to fly above the dome, along with the school’s president, spoke about the significance of that honor.
From the Statehouse steps, school President Alexander Conyers thanked Gov. Henry McMaster for approving legislators’ request.
“It recognizes that we are a valued partner in South Carolina,” he told the SC Daily Gazette.
After the ceremony, Booker reiterated his message of hope in an interview with the Gazette.
“I was standing in front of the Capitol dome that used to have the Confederate flag on top, and now they have the flag of an HBCU today,” he said. “If there’s any symbol of hope for me, it’s seeing something that would have been thought to be impossible just 25 years ago.”
King Day at the Dome began in 2000 as a protest against the Confederate flag, which then flew from the dome. Six months later, the flag was taken down from atop the Statehouse in a compromise that put a smaller version of the battle flag in a prominent spot on the Statehouse’s front lawn.
That legislative compromise made Martin Luther King Jr. Day a mandatory state holiday for the first time, while also restoring the permanent status of Confederate Memorial Day.
The Legislature didn’t vote to remove the Confederate flag entirely from Statehouse grounds until 2015, following the massacre of nine people at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, known as Mother Emanuel.
