GOP Keeps Mulvaney’s Seat in South Carolina, But Just Barely

Norman sounds polished. He seems most at ease talking about traditional conservative issues: cutting spending, balancing the budget, fully funding the military, repealing and replacing Obamacare, enacting tort reform. He’d like to see Congress make an effort on term limits, and he supports entitlement reform. His campaign website says he favors raising the retirement age by two months and lowering benefits for the top 10 percent of earners to keep Social Security solvent. He’s less talkative, though, about social issues. He considers himself a pro-life Christian—a de facto job requirement for Republicans in these parts—and hands over a mailer his campaign sent out with a big photo of a swaddled infant that calls Norman “the proven pro-life leader we need in Congress.” Those seeking stinging rebukes of Trump, though, will have to look elsewhere. Trump, Norman points out, has put a conservative on the Supreme Court and will sign legislation coming from a Republican Congress. Last fall, he says, the choice was clear. “Hillary Clinton, had she won, the country would have been pretty well destroyed, by my way of thinking,” he says. “Now, we have a mandate to move forward with conservative ideas.” … Should he win the June 20 election, he says he will be proud to join the House Freedom Caucus, the group of about 30 conservatives that pushes legislation rightward and has been a thorn in the side of House leadership.