President Trump is the law and order president. South Carolina needs a law and order Governor. Alan Wilson will be that Governor.

As South Carolina’s Attorney General, I’ve never been interested in soundbites—I’m interested in results. While others talk, we’ve spent over a decade delivering on the things that matter: protecting children, cracking down on predators and traffickers, and standing up to the federal government to defend South Carolina’s values and sovereignty.

Alan Wilson’s Law and Order Reform Package

Most Aggressive Reforms in 100 Years

Bond Reform

President Trump issued an Executive Order to stop cashless bail on a federal level, and we need to follow his lead here. It’s simple: if you do the crime, you should do the time and pay the full amount in cash if eligible for bond. Period.

Wilson helped lead the charge on the historic bond reform bill in 2023. But there are policies from the law that aren’t being implemented. Why? He wants to find out why and make sure the law is being followed. The South Carolina Pretrial Reform Commission was created from that law but it hasn’t been set up. Wilson wants that commission to be enforced and to hold bondsmen accountable. If you commit a violent crime or are a repeat offender, you should be denied bond. Period.

Sentencing Reforming

Stricter Penalties for Child Predators

Wilson is calling for major sentencing reform to increase penalties for sexual exploitation of minors and repeat offenders. The current laws are outdated and too often judges are giving the lower end of the sentencing guidelines. We need to update the laws and protect our children.
Under Wilson’s proposal, if you’re charged with manufacturing child sexual abuse material (CSAM), you should get a minimum of 25 years to life. If you’re charged with distributing, you should get a minimum of 10-20 years. If you’re charged with possession, Wilson wants to increase the current penalties and tier them based on quantity of images and videos and content. Right now, there is no mandatory minimum for repeat offenders for these crimes. Wilson’s plan changes that. If you are a repeat offender, you automatically get an additional mandatory minimum of 5 years tacked on to the new additional charges.

Death Penalty

There is currently a law on the books that allows for child rapists to receive the death penalty, but it’s never used because of a 2008 U.S. Supreme Court case that banned it from being used unless the child dies as a result of the rape. Alan Wilson believes the U.S. Supreme Court got it wrong and is working to change that. He is encouraging prosecutors to seek the death penalty for those crimes regardless. The Supreme Court got it wrong, and that decision needs to be overturned.

Booking Loopholes

Fixing the gaps in data communication and booking loopholes

Wilson’s plan calls for the creation of a statewide real-time booking and communication system between law enforcement, prosecutors, and judges. Too often, criminals are slipping through the cracks because their complete criminal record and other information isn’t fully available to all law enforcement and prosecution agencies. Working with SLED and sheriffs, Wilson pushed for this system years ago, but criminal defense attorneys on judiciary committees killed it.

Judicial Reform

When it comes to selecting judges, Wilson believes the federal model is best. But in the meantime, he wants to overhaul South Carolina’s judicial selection process to restore checks and balances and remove legislative control over the process.

All Judicial Merit Selection Commission (JMSC) members appointed by Governor
Create an additional judge for each judicial circuit appointed by the Governor (taking it from 16 circuit court judges to 32) to reduce backlog and move cases
Retention elections called for by the Governor
Retired judges must come back for screening
Require the JMSC to put together a sentencing report, the Judicial Ruling Transparency Report, about each judge to track his or her decisions, that must be published prior to the vote

Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC)

Before Alan was Attorney General, he was in the courtroom prosecuting child sex predators. Since taking office, he’s made it my mission to lead that fight from the front:

Nearly 90% of all ICAC arrests in state history have been under Alan’s time as Attorney General
These arrests have led to over 1,271 convictions under his leadership and that number continues to grow as we work through the legal process and clear cases each day
Expanded the ICAC Task Force from 40 to 128 agencies
Tripled the number of full-time positions fighting online child exploitation

Human Trafficking

When Alan took office, South Carolina had some of the weakest laws on human trafficking in the nation. He changed that.

Led the creation of the South Carolina Human Trafficking Task Force in 2012
Transformed SC’s laws from among the worst to among the strongest in the country
Created regional task forces and launched TraffickProofSC, a prevention curriculum for schools
Secured $6.5 million in state funding for specialized shelters for child victims
Fought for federal legislation to support trafficking survivors
Oversaw the closure of more than 280 sexual assault cases and 39 human trafficking cases

Immigration & Border Security

When Democrats thwarted our immigration laws and Washington insiders failed to act, Alan stood up and fought back:

Defended South Carolina’s immigration law in court when it came under fire from the Obama Administration
Opposed unlawful federal immigration programs like DAPA and Biden’s “Parole in Place” scheme
Filed and joined over a dozen lawsuits challenging Biden’s unlawful open-border policies, including Title 42 rollbacks and unlawful asylum expansions
Defended Texas’ right to enforce immigration laws by leading a 22-state coalition to support states
Issued guidance to South Carolina courts to consider immigration status in bond decisions
Visited the southern border to assess the crisis firsthand and collaborate with boots on the ground officials

Bottom Line:

Alan’s record isn’t just strong—it’s proven, measurable, and unmatched. He’s taken on child predators, traffickers, and the federal government and won. He will be the law and order Governor South Carolina needs.