Alvin Greene entered the South Carolina Democratic Senate primary with no campaign war chest, no signs, and no web site, yet the mystery man stunned everyone by winning his party's nomination in Tuesday's race.
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An unemployed military veteran has stunned South Carolina Democratic Party leaders by winning the nomination to challenge Republican U.S. Sen. Jim DeMint.
Thirty-two-year-old Alvin Greene of Manning defeated 64-year-old Vic Rawl of Charleston in Tuesday's primary. Rawl is a former judge and legislator, who had about $186,000 cash available and had already scheduled a fundraising event for Thursday.
SOURCE: Associated Press via Huffington Post
According to a Columbia Free Times report back in May, Greene is a black resident of rural Clarendon county who paid the $10,400 election filing fee using money he earned as an Army soldier.
Asked if he thought it was a good investment to spend so much of his own money in a two-way Democratic primary to run against a popular Republican with millions in campaign cash, Greene replied: "Rather than just save the $10,000 and just go and buy gasoline with it, just take [it] and just be unemployed for [an] even longer period of time, I mean, that wouldn’t make any sense, um, just, um, but, uh, yes, uh … lowering these gas prices … that will create jobs, too. Anything that will lower the gasoline prices. Offshore drilling, the energy package, all that."
For political news junkies, South Carolina sure is the gift that keeps on giving. Although Tea Party darling DeMint is expected to win it on November, let's hope Alvin can get it together and show them a thing or two in the meantime.
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