On June 9, primary day in South Carolina, state Rep. Michael Rivers pulled up to the Green Pond Community Center in Colleton County, a polling place. His Democratic primary opponent, Shannon DeLoach, was there.
According to DeLoach, Rivers opened with a question about campaign signs: "When it's all said and done, how much you going to sell my signs back to me for?" DeLoach tried to keep things civil. Rivers waved him off.
DeLoach's uncle, Oliver Francis, walked over to Rivers' car. "I said leave my nephew alone," Francis told him. "Stop lying on my nephew."
DeLoach described what happened next. "As he was rolling near the end of the driveway, he stopped. That's when he reached down. He pulled up the pistol. He leaned over to my uncle, pointed it, and then put it in the air."
That happened at a polling place, on election day, and the man holding the gun was a sitting member of the South Carolina House.
Rivers was gone by the time deputies arrived. The Colleton County Sheriff's Office asked the State Law Enforcement Division to investigate. On Friday, October 9, Rivers was booked into the Colleton County Detention Center and charged with pointing and presenting a firearm at a person, a felony that carries up to five years in prison. He was released on a $15,000 recognizance bond. The 14th Circuit Solicitor's Office will prosecute.
According to the arrest affidavit, Rivers "became involved in a brief verbal altercation with an individual at the polling site, over the campaign for the SC House of Representatives District 121 seat," then got a firearm from his vehicle and pointed it at the victim. "Multiple witness statements and video evidence corroborated this account."
There's video, and there are several witnesses.
Rivers, 67, is a minister and Air Force veteran from St. Helena Island. He has represented District 121 since 2017. He lost the primary to DeLoach that same day.
His response was to blame the man who beat him. "I'm innocent, and feel this accusation levied by my political opponent represents politics at its worst," Rivers said. "I ask citizens to reserve judgment until this matter has been resolved in a court of law and I eagerly wait for that opportunity."
The accusation comes from more than his political opponent. SLED investigators went through witness statements and video and concluded there was enough to charge a sitting lawmaker with a felony.
This also isn't the first time Rivers has been accused of pointing a gun at someone. In September 2022, the Beaufort County Sheriff's Office opened an investigation into claims that Rivers pointed a firearm at a man named Clifford Huff during a property dispute on St. Helena Island. As of this summer, that case was still listed as active and unresolved.
Rivers is innocent until proven guilty, and he'll have his day in court. But imagine the same facts with a different party label. A Republican lawmaker allegedly pulls a pistol at a polling place on election day and points it at his opponent's family during an argument over the race. Witnesses saw it, there's video, and he already has an open investigation for doing the same thing four years earlier.
That story would run for a week. It would be on the Sunday shows. Every Democrat in Washington would call it a threat to democracy and an act of political violence, and it would lead off a congressional hearing on election intimidation.
Michael Rivers, a Democrat, is accused of exactly that. The voters of District 121 had already made their decision before anyone knew. They gave the seat to the man whose uncle was on the wrong end of the gun.