Meet Duke Buckner, The Man Who Can Topple Rep. Jim Clyburn

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Duke Buckner campaign site

Duke has the intelligence, charisma, life experience, guts, values, and energy to do it. All he needs now is the money. For that, he needs your help.

What would you say if I told you that there is a Republican House candidate who can topple Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-SC), one of the most powerful people in American politics? Just two years ago, Duke Buckner, with a paltry $200,000 in funding, got 37.8% of the vote in his first campaign against Clyburn. Clyburn is beatable, and Duke has the intelligence, charisma, life experience, guts, values, and energy to do it. All he needs now is the money. For that, he needs your help.

Rep. Jim Clyburn has been in the House of Representatives for 31 years and is one of the Democrat party’s most powerful figures. He is the man who saved Joe Biden’s flailing campaign in 2020. With that kind of power, you’d think that the voters from South Carolina’s Sixth District would be rolling in pork…but they’re not. In fact, the Sixth District is one of the poorest regions in America. That’s because Clyburn represents Washington, D.C., not his constituents.

Duke Buckner aims to change life for the people in the Sixth District, not by sending pork their way but by returning America to first principles: The free market, hard work, self-reliance, and a strong moral foundation grounded in the Bible, not the Communist Manifesto.

I had lunch the other day with Duke and came away incredibly impressed. He’s charming and handsome, which is always an asset in politics, but he offers so much more than those superficial qualities. Duke is highly intelligent. He has an excellent fund of knowledge, strong analytic abilities, and an amazing memory, all of which come through when speaking with him.

Duke has two other attributes that intelligent people often lack and that Republicans especially seem to lack: He’s an organized thinker, so his ideas flow logically, which makes his arguments more compelling. In addition, like Thomas Sowell, Duke can present complex issues in simple ways without dumbing them down. He won’t just promise voters in the Sixth District that his policies will improve their lives. He’ll explain why those policies matter…and voters will understand.

Duke’s clarity is helped by the fact that his principles aren’t theoretical. They all flow from his life experiences.

Duke started working in high school because, even then, he believed in self-sufficiency. He wanted to have his own money rather than be dependent on his father. His first jobs were as a dishwasher at McDonald’s and Pizza Hut, before working at both Kmart and Walmart. After college, he was an English teacher, and then he and his wife founded a weekly newspaper to serve their local community. From there, Duke went to law school and, after a stint as a public defender, moved into private practice.

It was Duke’s newspaper experience that truly shaped his political attitudes. Being a small business with deadlines, rent, insurance, and payroll demands made him realize how onerous the government’s burdens are on working Americans. Reporting on local events taught him to listen carefully to both sides of any debate. And attending town council meetings piqued his interest in the political process.

Duke’s political views are also informed by his profound religious convictions. He was a Sunday Christian, having been raised in the Church. However, a profound life experience made him a true believer whose guiding moral principles come from the Bible.

The foundation for Duke’s campaign is Genesis 26:22. Chapter 26 recounts how Isaac moved to the Valley of Gerar, where Abraham had once lived. When he discovered that the Philistines had filled in his father’s wells, he had his servants dig a new well, only to have surrounding herders insist that the water was theirs. A second effort to dig a well had the same result. However, Isaac was undeterred. He moved his well-digging to a new location, and this time, he was successful:

And he removed from thence, and digged another well; and for that they strove not: and he called the name of it Rehoboth; and he said, For now the Lord hath made room for us, and we shall be fruitful in the land.

For Duke, that is life’s profound lesson and one he hopes the Sixth District voters will understand: Do not give up. Keep on digging that well, and eventually, you shall be fruitful.

As for Duke’s being a Republican, that wasn’t always the case either. Like me, he started life as a Democrat, only to realize that the Democrat party’s values weren’t his values. Duke knew he’d found his political home when he walked into the South Carolina Republican Party and first heard its creed, which Duke recites from memory with real passion.

I do not choose to be a common man.

It is my right to be uncommon.

If I can seek opportunity, not security, I want to take the calculated risk to dream and build, to fail and to succeed. I refuse to barter incentive for dole.

I prefer the challenges of life to guaranteed security, the thrill of fulfillment to the stale calm of utopia.

I will not trade freedom for beneficence, nor my dignity for a handout.

I will never cower before any master, save my God.

It is my heritage to stand erect, proud and unafraid. To think and act for myself, enjoy the benefit of my creations; to face the whole world boldly and say, “I am a free American.”

When it comes to Duke’s policies, they are solidly conservative. Check out his website for details, but the overview is smaller government for a better economy; strong borders and a strong military; pro-life; academic, not ideological education; and support for Israel. The last isn’t on Duke’s website. I know this because when Duke saw the Star of David I wear, he immediately assured me of his support for Israel.

I genuinely think Duke has what it takes to beat Jim Clyburn. Clyburn may have grown up in the Sixth District, but he is a Democrat party animal whose life and loyalties are in D.C. By contrast, Duke has deep roots in the District for he not only grew up there, but it’s also where he ran his newspaper and now has his law practice.

In the 2022 election, which was Duke’s first time running for House, he got 37.8% of the vote. That’s a huge percentage for a neophyte against an incumbent, especially when the neophyte has only $200,000 in his war chest.

This time around, Duke’s chances are improved because there will be three third-party candidates on the ballot, two of whom—one running on the United Citizens Party platform and the other on the Alliance Party platform—will take votes from Clyburn from the left. The third is a libertarian, but the events of the last few days (i.e., Trump going to the libertarian convention and the libertarians selecting a gay, pro-trans, pro-masks and vax, pro-women in sports, and open borders presidential candidate) may make the party a hard sell.

If Duke has a larger war chest, there’s every reason to believe that he can push his way over the 50% mark in the upcoming election. Unfortunately, given the Sixth District’s poverty, the money isn’t going to come from people there. It must come from others who want to see a good man win and who recognize that it would be a cataclysmic loss for the Democrat party were Jim Clyburn to get voted out of office.

No matter where you live, I urge you to donate whatever you can to Duke’s campaign. He needs the money, and America needs Duke Buckner.

Image from Duke Buckner’s campaign site.