On the Issues

Shane is proud to be a strong leader who won’t back down to political pressure from either side.

Shane believes that doing what is right is always more important than “going along to get along.” As a result, Shane Martin has a funds approval policy that all donations must adhere to. There have been several donations returned due to potential conflicts of interest or the fact that a group may be improperly trying to influence his values.

• Shane Martin is an ordained deacon and is solidly pro-life.  His first and foremost priority remains the protection of unborn life. He annually sponsors the Personhood Bill, and he voted in 2023 for a ban on abortions following the detection of the child’s heartbeat. He also fought for the successful replacement of pro-abortion South Carolina Supreme Court Justice Kaye Hearn to end judicial autocracy in South Carolina.

• Shane Martin is a former school board member, and he knows that Columbia (and Washington) must get out of classrooms.  Our parents and teachers know what is best—not Columbia bureaucrats—and he always stands in the way of more mandates, testing and needless expense. This year he voted to raise the starting salary by over 5% for a first-year teacher. He also has killed bills to force consolidation on unwilling local districts, to impose new and unfunded curriculum on our schools and new testing regimes on our already over-tested students. He fights for you, not the establishment.

• Shane Martin fights to prioritize you during the budgeting process. He wants to make sure core government services, like schools and law enforcement, maintain a reliable revenue stream instead of funneling money off to pet projects.  Needs, not wants, must be taken care of first!

• Shane Martin knows that wasteful government spending must end and that excess money must go back to the taxpayer!  He also is on the lookout for special interest favors hidden in larger legislation. This is the oldest trick in the book to waste your tax dollars without you knowing it.

• Shane Martin continues to push for Transparency. He has supported “roll call voting” and will continue to push for additional transparency in the state legislature. He has also co-sponsored legislation to make sure any appropriations bills have a 72 hour waiting period before a vote.  This gives the public time to voice their input and hopefully will slow down government’s ability to spend your hard earned tax dollars.

• Shane Martin has and will support legislation that will improve the environment for our small businesses and large employers. Tax and regulatory reduction along with tort reform will always be on his priority list.

• Shane Martin is an engineer and small business owner, and he knows the value of every dollar. He knows that wasteful government spending must end and that excess money must go back to the taxpayer!  He opposed the billion-dollar corporate welfare deal for Volkswagen at the expense of our taxpayers, and he will always support South Carolina taxpayers over foreign corporations.

• Shane Martin chairs the subcommittee that oversees law enforcement funding. He fights for the resources they need to keep us safe. This year he led the way to appropriate over $27 million in new money for School Resource Officers; over $29 million for school buses; over $71 million  to improve the conditions at the Department of Juvenile Justice; over $14.6 million to increase salaries for law enforcement officers, and $2 million for the statewide body-worn camera program.

• South Carolina, for many years, was unable to carry out the death penalty, because the companies that manufacture the drugs refuse to provide them for fear of retaliation by left-wing extremists, such as ANTIFA. Shane Martin chaired the Senate committee that passed legislation to prohibit the disclosure of any identifying information of members of an execution team carrying out the death penalty as well as the companies that provide necessary drugs. That is now the law, and sentences of capital punishment will be carried out in South Carolina.

• Shane Martin believes 100% in our right to keep and bear arms! He will defend our 2nd amendment rights, and in 2023 he successfully shepherded the Constitutional Carry bill to the Senate floor. Your God-given right to self-protection soon will be restored in South Carolina. 

• Shane Martin led the fight against COVID absurdity here in South Carolina. He held several Senate hearings and compelled your governor to officially endorse treatment by monoclonal antibodies. He also has successfully attached budget provisions each year prohibiting vaccine and masking mandates in public entities such as colleges and schools. His was nearly a lone voice among elected officials in opposition to the government regulators and the Chamber of Commerce during the pandemic.