Politics & Government

Anti-Ray Nash Post Sparks Controversy

Latest example of social media kerfuffle.

A Twitter post on Thursday about Republican Ray Nash led to a flare-up in the First Congressional District.

A user by the name of @DorchesterSCGOP posted a response to a story on the conservative blog FITS News that referenced a 2009 report about Nash's tenure as the Sheriff of Dorchester County. The Twitter post was critical of Nash's fiscal record (see attached screenshot).

The Twitter account in question identifies itself as "The official Twitter page of the Dorchester County (SC) Republican Party."

Find out what's happening in Columbiawith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Usually, parties do not speak for or against any candidates in the primary portion of a campaign, which led to speculation that the account had been hacked.

On the Facebook page for the Dorchester GOP, Janette Chipas, an administrative coordinator for the party, posted the following:

Find out what's happening in Columbiawith free, real-time updates from Patch.

"This is the official response to this post: Carroll Duncan is currently unvailable, but I can say with absolute certainty that what appears under Billy Hall's original post is NOT from the Dorchester County Republican Party. Whoever has posted these tweets has done so without permission or authority. The Republican Party will not tolerate disparaging remarks about ANY candidate. As soon as it can be taken down, we will. We hope that those of you who follow our Party know that we do not endorse any candidate in the primary and encourage all Republican candidates who have the desire to seek public office. Thank you, Billy, for pointing out this false and inflammatory information. I hope you all will help us correct it. Thanks!"

While Nash probably is not too thrilled about potentially unflattering events that are nearly four years old being brought up, the positive side is that no one would be mentioning them unless they thought Nash had a realistic chance of at least making the run-off.

Keep up with all of Patch's coverage of South Carolina politics by following us on Facebook HERE and Twitter HERE.


Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

More from Columbia