The 2026 Session Recap: What Moved, What Died, and What Comes Next

ALPHA STRATEGIES | LEGISLATIVE SESSION UPDATE | SECOND REGULAR SESSION RECAP

January 13 to May 26, 2026 | South Carolina General Assembly, 126th Session

The 2026 session will be remembered for two things that rarely share a sentence. It produced some of the most far-reaching structural policy in years, and it could not figure out how to stop. Lawmakers restructured the income tax, abolished the SCDOT Commission, expanded the Heritage Act, and rewrote the rules for charter schools and social media. Then they gaveled out on May 14 and got called right back by executive order, where a Trump-backed congressional map consumed three weeks before dying on the first morning of early voting.

A clean way to read the year: the fiscal and structural agenda largely got done, the social policy agenda mostly did not, and procedure decided the difference far more often than the politics did. Here is the session, lane by lane, with the storylines that ran underneath it, what became law, what died, and what is still unfinished as the special session continues. A verified status ledger sits near the end.

WHAT "SECOND YEAR OF A TWO-YEAR SESSION" MEANS, AND WHY IT GOVERNS EVERYTHING BELOW

South Carolina legislates in two-year blocks. The 126th General Assembly convened in January 2025 and does not formally end until the 127th is sworn in. 2025 was year one. 2026 was year two, the back half of one continuous session.

That structure controls what survives. A bill introduced in 2025 stayed alive into 2026 without being refiled. But when the second year ends, the slate wipes clean. Anything that has not passed both chambers does not carry forward. It dies. To come back in 2027, it has to start over from the bottom: new bill number, new committee referral, new readings, the full climb again. When we say a bill "resets to zero," that is the literal meaning. The closed primary effort, the near total abortion ban, the Ten Commandments display bill, and tort reform are not paused. They are gone, and someone has to file them fresh next January.

Two categories survived the May 14 close. Bills that had reached a conference committee remained pending business, which let them carry into the special session rather than die.

The unfinished budget came along the same way.

One more distinction shaped the entire spring. This was a governor-ordered special session under an executive order, not a recess governed by a sine die agreement the chambers write for themselves. The Governor set the start date and named the subjects in his order, and the posture that followed is what kept the budget and conference items on the table. It is also why a standalone redistricting bill could be taken up in the special session by simple majority, rather than under the two-thirds vote a self-called return after sine die would have required. In that sense, the bloc that killed the sine die resolution to slow redistricting down arguably helped create the easier procedural path for the map to move, even though the bill ultimately died in the Senate.

THE FISCAL STORY: A TWO-BRACKET INCOME TAX, AND A BUDGET THAT STILL IS NOT DONE

The defining domestic policy achievement of the session was the income tax overhaul, H. 4216, signed March 30, 2026, as Act No. 110. The law collapses South Carolina’s income tax structure from three brackets to two, lowers the top rate from 6.0 percent to 5.21 percent, and creates a new state deduction system to replace the federal standard and itemized deductions. It also includes a revenue trigger designed to move both rates toward zero over time if collections grow fast enough. The change takes effect for tax year 2026, with returns due in April 2027. The Revenue and Fiscal Affairs Office estimated that roughly three-quarters of filers will see a lower bill, while some middle-income earners who relied heavily on itemized deductions may see little change or an increase.

It did not travel alone. A senior homestead exemption expansion (S. 768) cleared the Senate unanimously, raising the exemption for longtime residents 65 and older and adjusting residency rules, with near identical language also carried as a budget proviso as a backup.

Manufacturing property tax relief and small business tax relief also crossed the finish line.

The budget is the conspicuous exception. The FY27 General Appropriations Act did not finish by Sine Die and remains in conference. A continuing resolution is keeping government funded past July 1, which removes the shutdown cliff and, with it, the urgency.

The House and Senate agree on the headline compensation items, namely first-year teacher pay clearing $50,000 and a 2 percent state employee raise. They have not closed on Medicaid, where their funding proposals remain tens of millions apart and well below the agency request. Until the budget passes, that Medicaid gap is the single largest unresolved number in state government. Two unresolved budget fights, the $150 million in Commerce funding for Scout Motors site overruns in Blythewood and money for the contested Captain Sam’s Spit tract on Kiawah, were also still caught in the standoff between the House and Senate.

GOVERNMENT STRUCTURE: THE DOT COMMISSION IS GONE

The most consequential governance change of the year is S. 831, the SCDOT modernization bill. After years of structural fights over how South Carolina runs its road program, the bill abolishes the SCDOT Commission and moves appointment of the transportation secretary to the Governor with Senate advice and consent, effective January 1, 2027. It authorizes public-private partnerships, sets up a tolling framework for optional choice lanes, creates a pothole program, and requires a periodic external audit. The EV fee increase and the mandatory county road transfer provisions that drew the most heat were stripped along the way. It passed both chambers overwhelmingly and is law. For a bill of its size, it crossed with comparatively little late drama.

The appointments and judicial selection fights were quieter, but less conclusive. S. 922 sought to change how executive appointments are confirmed and to restructure the State Election Commission. Judicial merit reform, H. 4755, cleared the House but stalled before becoming law, reflecting the Senate’s caution about changing the Legislature’s traditional role in judicial selection.

One workforce-related bill did make it into the law column. S. 688, unemployment insurance reform and small-business personal property tax relief, signed May 22, 2026; effective upon the Governor’s approval.

PUBLIC SAFETY AND JUDICIARY: A LOT MOVED, THE TWO BIGGEST DID NOT FINISH

This was a busy lane, and it ends with several high-profile bills unfinished.

DUI reform, S. 52, is one of the unfinished bills that will draw the most attention. Senator Tom Davis’s overhaul, the most significant rewrite of the state’s DUI law since 2008, passed the House 108 to 0. The chambers split over the Senate’s changes, sending the bill to conference, where it remains pending. In a state consistently ranked among the worst nationally for impaired-driving fatalities, leaving this unfinished is difficult politics for everyone, which is why leadership has named it a special session priority.

The HALO Act, H. 4763, creating a buffer around first responders, also landed in conference after the House and Senate split over the final version, and is on the special session list.

Tort reform moved early and big in the House, where the noneconomic damages and time-limited demand bills, H. 4544 and H. 4670, passed 116 to 0 and 114 to 0. Both were recalled from Senate Judiciary and received second reading in the Senate, but neither reached final passage before the session ended.

Fargo’s Law, H. 3034, became Act No. 130, increasing penalties for harming police animals and adding restitution and related payment provisions. The attempted murder restructuring bill, S. 270, passed the Senate and moved to the House, where it was referred to Judiciary. On juvenile justice, H. 5120 became law, while H. 5121, the community juvenile crime prevention certification bill, did not receive final passage.

EDUCATION AND SOCIAL POLICY: THE PRIVACY ACT AND THE HERITAGE ACT PASSED, THE TEN COMMANDMENTS DID NOT

The session’s running theme, what one might call a taxonomy of belonging, the Assembly’s year-long effort to define who counts as what and who decides, played out most visibly here.

Two of the most watched bills became law. The Student Physical Privacy Act, H. 4756, requires multi-occupancy school and university restrooms, changing facilities, and sleeping quarters to be designated by biological sex, with a funding-withholding enforcement mechanism for noncompliance. It was ratified May 14 and approved May 15 after the House accepted the Senate’s amendments. It cleared the House 96 to 19 and the Senate 33 to 2 at earlier stages.

In the final hours of the regular session, the Monument and Memorial Protection bill, S. 508, the Heritage Act expansion, was resolved through conference. It was ratified May 15 and signed May 19. The law expands the existing 2000 statute to cover a broader universe of monuments, memorials, and historic names on public property, centralizes change authority with the General Assembly, creates standing for certain preservation groups to sue, and restricts added context such as plaques, markers, or digital messages not original to the monument or memorial. The conference report cleared the House 79 to 28 and the Senate 40 to 0.

Charter school accountability, S. 454, crossed the finish line and became law effective May 15. The law changes charter school terminology from “sponsor” to “authorizer,” requires additional financial and governance disclosures, increases authorizer oversight, and adds transparency rules around operations and management. It was a direct response to growing scrutiny of private management arrangements in the fast-growing charter sector. The Stop Harm from Addictive Social Media Act, H. 4591, with its age-verification and parental-consent framework for large platforms, was ratified May 15 and takes effect January 1, 2027.

What did not pass is just as telling. The Ten Commandments classroom display bill, H. 4762, cleared the House 84 to 31, was sent to the Senate, and remained in Senate Education. It is dead for the year, as were a stack of other House-passed social bills the Senate declined to take up.

HEALTHCARE: THE NEAR TOTAL ABORTION BAN DIED IN THE SENATE

The year’s most watched healthcare fight was S. 1095, the Unborn Child Protection Act, which would have banned abortion from clinical detection, removed the rape, incest, and fatal anomaly exceptions, and treated abortion-inducing drugs as controlled substances.

Senate Medical Affairs advanced the bill with an amendment, but the full Senate never gave it final floor action. With Senator Tom Davis on record opposing the bill and threatening a filibuster, it never had a clear floor path. It dies for the year, as did H. 4760, the House-passed abortion-inducing drug bill, which did not receive final Senate passage.

Elsewhere in the lane, the physician noncompete prohibition, H. 4767, passed the House, received a favorable report from Senate Labor, Commerce and Industry, and remained in the Senate without final passage. The vaccine debate produced some of the more memorable testimony of the session. S. 897, the school MMR requirement bill, failed in Senate Medical Affairs subcommittee, while S. 741, a separate bill prohibiting vaccine mandates for infants under 24 months, remained in Senate Medical Affairs without final passage.

The pattern across the lane held: the House moved several major healthcare and social-policy bills, and the Senate often decided how far they would go.

HEMP: STILL THE MESSIEST UNFINISHED BUSINESS

H. 3924, the consumable hemp regulation bill, was a defining storyline from the first weeks of session and ended the regular session unresolved. The Senate built a regulatory framework that would have barred sales to anyone under 21, allowed certain low-dose THC beverages to be sold behind the counter by licensed retailers, routed higher-dose beverages through licensed liquor stores, and prohibited on-premise consumption. The bill passed the Senate, only to bog down again between the chambers. The House amended the Senate version with a conference-forcing package, the Senate nonconcurred, and both chambers appointed conferees. It remains in conference and on the special session priority list, with the November 2026 federal hemp deadline that has driven urgency around the issue still looming.

REDISTRICTING: THE FIGHT THAT ATE THE OFF RAMP, AND DIED ON A MOTION TO CONTINUE

The redistricting fight reshaped the back third of the session and is the reason the General Assembly is still working. The national context matters. After the U.S. Supreme Court’s April 29 ruling in Louisiana v. Callais reshaped the legal landscape, a national Republican push to redraw maps mid-decade accelerated across several states. President Trump pressed South Carolina publicly on Truth Social and personally by phone to Senate Majority Leader Shane Massey.

After the sine die resolution failed and McMaster called the special session, the House moved H. 5683, a map advanced as part of the national Republican redistricting push and aimed at making all seven congressional districts more favorable to Republicans. The proposal would have redrawn Rep. Jim Clyburn’s majority-Black district and created a new August congressional primary calendar. The House moved it through a compressed floor process, including a rule change that drew a League of Women Voters and ACLU lawsuit. A judge declined to stop the debate, with a ruling that turned in part on the House’s authority to set its own rules.

In the Senate, it died on procedure, which is fitting for a fight that was always about procedure. On May 26, the first morning of early voting, supporters could not assemble the votes needed to force the bill forward. Senator Tom Davis then moved to continue the bill, and because continuing a bill in the second year of a two-year Assembly carries it past the session’s end, the motion functioned as a kill without a direct up-or-down vote on the map itself. It carried 26 to 18, with Democrats and fourteen Republicans voting to continue the bill. The Senate adjourned to June 10.

By the time it was over, South Carolina had already seen record first-day early voting for the June primaries. Senator Richard Cash, who had previously voted to advance the bill, reversed course and put the timing plainly: “Neither my conscience nor my common sense will allow me to stop an election underway.” Senator Tom Davis then gave the Senate’s procedural objection its clearest form: the 2021 congressional map took nine months to draw, while this one had been before lawmakers for nineteen days; and the Washington-based mapmaker's appearance in the legislative record was limited. The current 6-to-1 congressional map stands. The bill was continued 26 to 18, with fourteen Republicans joining Democrats to stop it. The current 6-to-1 congressional map stands. The blowback was immediate, with Governor Henry McMaster, the Attorney General, state party leaders, and national voices criticizing the Senate’s decision. The political catch is the calendar: most of the Senate Republicans who crossed over do not face voters again until 2028.

BEYOND THE BILLS: THE STORYLINES THAT SHAPED THE SESSION

Some of the most consequential developments of 2026 were not bills at all. They set the temperature in the building.

The race for governor. With Governor Henry McMaster term-limited after the longest gubernatorial tenure in state history, the open seat drove constant positioning, and the competition for President Trump's endorsement-colored fights from redistricting to abortion. The crowded Republican field, candidate debates, and Lowcountry businessman Rom Reddy’s self-funded entry made the governor’s race a constant backdrop to the session.

The Supreme Court seat. South Carolina’s legislators elect its judges, and the year’s sharpest institutional moment came when incumbent Justice John Few withdrew the day before the March 4 election after acknowledging he did not have the votes to win reelection. His withdrawal canceled that vote and forced the judicial screening process to restart. With Few set to leave the court when his term expires at the end of July, the seat remains unresolved.

The Treasurer cloud. The fallout from the state’s $1.8 billion accounting error, the related comptroller and auditor resignations, the SEC inquiry, and concern about the state’s financial credibility remained a backdrop to fiscal conversations. The Senate voted to remove Treasurer Curtis Loftis, the House declined to follow, and Loftis is now running for reelection in 2026, putting the whole saga on the ballot.

SC State and the commencement fight. After South Carolina State University rescinded its commencement invitation to Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette following student protests and citing safety concerns, nine House Republicans pushed to cut or eliminate state funding for the university. The House-passed budget did not defund the HBCU, and commencement proceeded without Evette, but the episode put a public funding target on a state institution and became one of the most visible stories of the spring.

The symbolism wars. The State House opened its rotunda in March for the lying in state of the Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr., a rare honor, then days later the House voted on measures to name a highway and bridge for Charlie Kirk. The Kirk resolution passed the House but stalled in the Senate, while a resolution naming the future I-73 corridor for President Donald J. Trump was adopted by the General Assembly. A separate Senate resolution to name a stretch of I-77 in Richland County for President Barack H. Obama passed the Senate but stalled in the House. Together, the naming fights turned a routine local process into a proxy fight over national politics and drew heavy social media attention along the way.

The pressures with no statute yet. Two slow-building issues generated budget provisos and committee fights, but no broad standalone law. Data centers, and the power and water demands they create, produced budget language on water-use reporting and incentive limits, while broader regulatory bills failed to reach final passage. Agriculture pressures, including drought, rising input costs, and crop losses, drew bipartisan support for relief funding that lived mostly inside the budget. Both are 2027 storylines in waiting. Community Investment Projects, the current framing for member-directed local funding, are another area to watch.

WHAT DIED AND RESETS TO ZERO

Because this is year two, the end of the regular session matters. Most bills that did not clear both chambers, land in conference, or remain otherwise procedurally live in the special session are effectively dead and would have to start over in 2027. The list below is not exhaustive, but it captures some of the most visible policy pushes that failed to become law.

• The gambling slate. Online sports betting, app-based horse race wagering, and the Santee I-95 casino all stalled against firm opposition.

• Data center regulation. The standalone bills aimed at the facilities driving the power-demand surge fizzled.

• The closed primary push. Multiple closed-primary bills were filed across the session, but none became law.

• Civil litigation and physician workforce reform. Tort reform, H. 4544 and H. 4670, passed the House and moved farther in the Senate than many late-session bills, but neither reached final passage. The physician noncompete prohibition, H. 4767, passed the House, received a favorable report from Senate Labor, Commerce and Industry, and also failed to receive final Senate passage.

• Social policy bills the Senate would not take up. The Ten Commandments display bill, the near-total abortion ban, S. 1095, the related abortion drug bill, H. 4760, the mandatory 287(g) immigration bill, H. 4764, and a parental rights bill all passed one chamber and died in the other, almost always with the House passing and the Senate declining.

The throughline is the one that defined the year. The House showed where the political energy was. The Senate showed where the governing choke points were. Time and again, the House moved aggressively on social policy, and the Senate, deliberately, decided which of those bills would ever reach the floor.

WHAT IS STILL UNFINISHED

The special session is not over. Governor McMaster’s order remains in effect unless it is modified, amended, or rescinded. The Governor set the start date and named subjects in his order, but once the chambers returned, the procedural posture created room for the budget, conference items, redistricting, and other live matters to move. Two buckets of real work remain.

First, the budget. The FY27 appropriations bill still has to pass, the Medicaid gap still has to close, and the continuing resolution is the only reason there is no shutdown deadline forcing the issue.

Second, a set of conference bills and other procedurally live items remain available for special-session action. Leadership has named two as priorities: S. 52, DUI reform, and H. 3924, consumable hemp regulation. Other unresolved items remain live depending on posture, but the real question is whether either chamber chooses to spend special-session time on them.

THE BALLOT: WHAT COMES NEXT FOR VOTERS

The redistricting defeat means the 2026 election calendar proceeds on the existing congressional lines and original schedule. There is no August congressional primary tied to new lines.

• Primary: June 9, 2026. Runoff where needed: June 23. General election: November 3.

• Governor. Open seat, with Governor Henry McMaster term-limited. The Republican primary remains one of the most closely watched races in the state, with a crowded filed candidate field. After the primary, the nominee for governor selects a lieutenant governor running mate for the general election ticket.

• U.S. Senate. Four-term incumbent Lindsey Graham is seeking a fifth term, with a primary June 9.

• Congress. All seven U.S. House seats are on the ballot on the surviving 6-to-1 map, with Rep. James Clyburn’s majority-Black district intact.

• Other statewide offices. Treasurer Curtis Loftis is running for reelection despite the accounting error fallout, making Treasurer one of the down-ballot statewide races worth watching.

• Legislature. All 124 House seats are up November 3, while Senate seats are not up again until 2028. That timing is part of the political math behind the redistricting defections.

FINAL STATUS LEDGER

This is not an exhaustive list of every bill filed or every item still procedurally alive. It highlights the major enacted, unfinished, and failed policy items Alpha Strategies tracked throughout the weekly Alpha Brief session recaps.

Signed into law and in effect:

• H. 4216, income tax restructuring, Act No. 110, signed March 30, 2026, effective tax year 2026 (1.99 percent under $30,000; 5.21 percent, minus $966, at $30,000 and above; top rate down from 6.0 percent)

• H. 4902, intercollegiate NIL contract confidentiality, Act No. 119, effective April 1, 2026 (veto overridden)

• H. 4756, Student Physical Privacy Act, Act No. 152, effective May 15, 2026

• S. 508, Monument and Memorial Protection, the Heritage Act expansion, ratified May 15, 2026; signed May 19, 2026; effective upon approval

• S. 454, charter school accountability, Act No. 123, effective May 15, 2026

• S. 439, manufacturing property tax exemption increase, Act No. 122, effective May 15, 2026

• H. 3034, Fargo’s Law, police animal protections, Act No. 130, effective May 15, 2026

• S. 688, unemployment insurance reform and small-business personal property tax relief, Act No. 149, effective upon approval

• S. 769, FY27 continuing resolution, in effect, funding government until the budget passes

Enacted but effective later:

• H. 4591, Stop Harm from Addictive Social Media Act, signed May 19, 2026, effective January 1, 2027

• S. 831, SCDOT modernization, enacted, with the DOT Commission abolished effective January 1, 2027

Unfinished or otherwise live for special-session action:

• The FY27 General Appropriations Act, H. 5126, with the Medicaid funding gap still open

• S. 52, DUI reform

• H. 3924, consumable hemp regulation

• H. 4248, shrimp truth in advertising

• H. 4763, HALO first responder buffer

• Pending gubernatorial vetoes, including S. 238

Died for the year or failed to become law:

• H. 5683, congressional redistricting, continued 26 to 18 on May 26

• S. 1095, near-total abortion ban, and H. 4760, abortion-inducing drug bill

• H. 4762, Ten Commandments classroom display

• H. 4764, mandatory 287(g) immigration agreements

• H. 4544 and H. 4670, civil litigation and medical malpractice reform

• H. 4767, physician noncompete prohibition

• H. 4755, judicial merit reform

• The gambling slate, standalone data-center regulation, and multiple closed-primary bills

Note: the senior homestead exemption expansion, S. 768, passed the Senate, with near-identical language also carried as a budget proviso. Its final form is tied to the still-pending budget.

CLOSING

If there is one lesson the 126th’s second regular session keeps teaching, it is the one Alpha Strategies has returned to all year. At the South Carolina State House, procedure is the policy. A generational tax cut and the end of the DOT Commission moved because the procedural work was done early and quietly. A near-total abortion ban and the closed primary push went nowhere because the Senate never gave them a path. And a map backed by the President and the Governor died not on its merits, but on a cloture count and a motion to continue, decided by members who never had to record a vote on the lines themselves. The visible vote was almost never the whole story.

Because this is the end of a two-year cycle, the slate now resets, and the work that decides 2027 begins immediately through the special session, the budget endgame, the conference fights, and the long months when no one is watching the floor. Strategy development, drafting, coalition building, agency engagement, and the relationships that determine what moves when the 127th General Assembly convenes in January are built in exactly this window.

At Alpha Strategies, we help clients navigate the State House with clear strategy, thoughtful advocacy, and a strong understanding of how policy decisions move from conversation to consequence. Our work sits at the intersection of government relations, public affairs, strategic communications, and relationship-building because moving an issue requires more than knowing what is on the calendar. It requires knowing what is real, what is theater, who matters, when to engage, and how to position an issue before the vote ever happens.

Thank you for reading and sharing Alpha Brief throughout the session. We are grateful for every client, colleague, policymaker, partner, and public observer who followed along as we tracked the work of the General Assembly week by week.

If your organization is looking to better understand the state budget, engage the General Assembly, strengthen visibility around a policy issue, or align your government relations and public affairs strategy with what is actually moving, we are always glad to connect.

Onward.

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