Leading for Local Conservative Values

Josiah Magnuson has been active and effective as your representative. He possesses the unique ability to respect and work with people of any ideological viewpoint while standing firm to vote according to his deep Christian conservative convictions.

Josiah understands that the future of our country is at stake today. America's foundations are under attack by woke Left socialist thinking on the one hand and an entrenched Deep State on the other. But Josiah knows there is a path to restore our country if we will honor God, uphold the Constitution, and defend individual liberties. That hope is what gives him the courage to fight for our families.

As your servant in Columbia, Josiah shares your frustration with state government - and knows what to do about it. He has consistently worked to clean up Columbia, fighting for real reform of the roads and transportation system, judicial selection process, budget process, education bureaucracy, and more. His number one priority is defending the life and liberty of individuals. He believes more freedom and more government accountability will lead to more prosperity.

Toward this goal, over the past few years Josiah has been building a statewide team for America First common-sense solutions that will make South Carolina a better place.

In April 2022, Josiah co-founded the SC Freedom Caucus with 12 other conservative House members. The SC Freedom Caucus is a group of conservative legislators affiliated with the U.S. House Freedom Caucus including fighters like Congressman Jim Jordan and Congressman Ralph Norman. It provides a forum to pull together and strategize, so that legislators can champion conservative issues that are often ignored by the weak political establishment. The Left is great at organizing but so often conservatives have been divided and ineffective. Now, we are building a vehicle for conservative unity in the State House through the SC Freedom Caucus, so we can defeat the Democrat and RINO agenda.

Josiah serves as the group’s Secretary and works overtime on its executive team, along with Rep. Adam Morgan of Taylors (Chairman) and Rep. RJ May of Lexington (Vice-Chair), managing day-to-day operations. The SC Freedom Caucus has now grown to 17 members and expects to gain more seats in 2024 as the people of South Carolina continue to let their voices be heard at the ballot box.

Josiah has been true to his campaign promises: voting against the gas tax hike, fighting to recognize human life at conception, influencing in the House toward real judicial reform, vocally advocating for the First, Second, and Tenth Amendments, defending our historical monuments and American heritage, and remaining accessible and accountable to the people of District 38 with regular town hall events.

Because of Josiah’s strong effective voice, the Columbia Swamp has put a target on his back. They are quick to allege that Josiah has no results - a claim that is laughable on its face, because they would never be coming out with such force against him if he wasn’t making a difference. Josiah’s numerous successes have included, for example:

• Proposing and securing state funding for school resource officers

• Beating back Joe Biden’s illegal vaccine mandate by fighting RINOs and then leading negotiations to pass a bill

• Keeping churches open during Covid-19 by working with Gov. McMaster

• Requiring teaching of the U.S. Constitution in our state universities with the REACH Act

• Passing through the House criminal penalties for physicians who try to “gender transition” a minor

• Major victories for gun rights, including open carry and Constitutional Carry signed into law

• Major victories for the lives of unborn children, including the Heartbeat Act, plus leading the charge for protection of every baby from conception as the sponsor of numerous Personhood bills and amendments

• Forcing out failed leaders of state bureaucracies - for example the Dept. of Juvenile Justice, the Commission on Higher Education, the State Election Commission, and SCDOT

• Dismantling CRT/DEI indoctrination in South Carolina’s schools and colleges, and catalyzing the parental rights movement across the state to stop woke Leftism

• Repealing the Certificate of Need law which created hospital monopolies

• Exposing the corruption in our state judicial election process to create a statewide bipartisan movement for change

• Strengthening our state’s election integrity by banning drop boxes, requiring a personal ID to cast an absentee ballot, creating a SLED hotline to report fraud, and more

• Cutting state income taxes from 7% to 6.4% by bringing conservative legislators together to have a voice

• Greater details released and more public transparency with taxpayer dollars on funding for legislators’ special earmark projects

• Hundreds of millions more dollars in the budget directed to fix the local roads that we drive every day

• And much more.

Josiah has consistently fought to defend the taxpayer against ever-growing state spending while fully funding core government functions. Josiah seeks to fully fund our roads, education, courts, and law enforcement, and stop wasting your money on pork. He believes the priorities in Columbia are often in the wrong places.

One example occurred during the 2018 budget debate when Josiah advocated for $5 million in funding for school resource officers, but the House voted down his amendment and instead spent the money on tourism advertising! Fortunately, after Josiah mobilized the grassroots and sparked an overwhelming public response, $2 million was placed in the budget for SROs, which was raised to $10 million in 2019.

Another more recent example of wrong priorities in Columbia was during the 2023 budget debate when Josiah joined with Reps. Adam Morgan, R.J. May, and Jordan Pace to introduce over $208 million in cuts to wasteful spending. The cuts included pork such as BMX biking and Lego clubs as well as woke Leftist “diversity, equity, and inclusion” training in our state universities. At the same time, Josiah also proposed increasing law enforcement funds by $23 million and foster care by $7.5 million. Sadly, these amendments were voted down by the ruling coalition of moderate Republicans and Democrats who typically vote together on key issues. But when the Uniparty exposes itself with a recorded vote, that in itself is a win, because it shows us who in the House really stands with the people and who stands with the lobbyists and special interests.

Further, the earmark process, which accounted for $700 million in the budget in 2023, has sorely lacked transparency and accountability. Details have been slight on where earmark money is going and there is no requirement to go back and verify how the money is spent once the checks are cut. Though state law now requires the House to at least release the list prior to a vote, mostly due to Josiah’s efforts, until this past year it was still vague and very difficult for legislators, let alone the public, to adequately review.

In fact, this past year, the vote was scheduled for 10:30am and the earmark list was not even released until 1:19am that morning! Josiah got up and courageously began reading the list of these secretive special projects in front of the whole House - and the TV cameras. Talk about kicking a hornet’s nest.

This work has earned him the wrath of the Swamp - with tens of thousands of dollars in falsehoods being dumped in District 38 this past year by dark money from special interests and lobbyists. The cronies in Columbia have literally been pleading with lobbyists to send more money to defeat our representative, and they searched long and hard before they found a candidate to be their “yes man.” Despite the Swamp’s attacks, Josiah is committed to continuing to shine the light and reforming the corrupt Columbia system.

The good news is that because Josiah didn’t back down, beginning in 2024 the House Ways and Means Committee is now requiring much greater transparency and detail in the earmark process. The updated earmark form now requires specifics about each project, including the contact information of a person at the entity requesting, how the funds will benefit the public, when the project will be started and completed, and a detailed description of the project. This information is all promised to be released to the public, for the first time ever. This was a huge win for our representative, but more importantly for you as a South Carolina taxpayer.

Our efforts for government reform are paying off. We are building a window of hope in a wall of complacency. Much has been accomplished, but we need to finish the job.

Please vote for Rep. Josiah Magnuson on June 11th!

Josiah lives out his belief in transparency.  Since his election, Josiah has held frequent town hall events, provided consistent email updates on current issues in the House, and been responsive on Facebook and by phone. You can call or text his personal cell at 864-420-7933, email rjosiahmagnuson@gmail.com, or connect directly on Facebook by clicking here.

To view Josiah's voting record, visit his State House page here and then click "Find Votes" at the bottom right. Or, click “Find Bills” to see what legislation he has introduced this session.

To view Josiah’s campaign contributions and expenses, visit the SC Ethics site here.