HRC Blog

First openly gay official elected in South Carolina

February 18, 2009

Congratulations are in order to Nick Shalosky, a 21-year-old junior at the College of Charleston, who will become South Carolina's first openly gay elected official after winning a seat on the Charleston County Constituent School Board. In a self-authored post at The Bilerico Project, Nick credits the power of Facebook for allowing him to reach out directly to friends and constituents and get elected using write-in campaign - all for free:

I almost didn't get elected. Two weeks before the election this November, I didn't even know that I was going to be a candidate. However, as I was early voting, I saw that no one had filed for my local school board seat. Education is important to me (I'm still in college), so with the lack of participation in the school board race, I decided to put my name in as a write-in candidate. Within two weeks, I had organized enough support to get elected to public office. I texted friends, sent a few emails, and talked with some local bloggers. But, I primarily organized by setting up a Facebook event page, inviting local voters to join, and following up with them to make sure that they knew my name and wrote it in on the appropriate ballot line on Election Day. Facebook provided me with an avenue to quickly organize after jumping into the race with only two weeks before Election Day. Such rapid mobilization might not have been possible only two years ago. But, with a Facebook page and a knowledge of online organizing, I secured my winning margin without spending a penny.