Krystle Matthews

On June 26, 2022, audio of a prison phone call was released by the far-right activist group Project Veritas. On the recording, Matthews expresses a desire to accept money from drug dealers to fund her campaign and also calls for Democrats to run as "secret sleepers" in Republican primaries.[9] She also instructed the inmate to use the name of somebody in their family rather than their own name, without the knowledge of the family member, when making the donation.[10] Matthews won the primary runoff two days later. In reference to the recording, Matthews said, “Nothing I said was untrue. And everything I said are also things that I’ve already talked about throughout my campaign. I don’t run from anything.”[9] She described the phone call with the inmate as "tongue-in-cheek" and argued that she was not advocating for any illegal activities.[11] She apologized for her language in a private conversation.[12]

On September 8, 2022, Project Veritas again obtained a recording of Matthews making statements about white people, resulting in calls for her resignation by Republican South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson and fellow Democrat South Carolina State House Representative Justin Bamberg.[13] In the recording, Representative Matthews states, "My district is slightly Republican, and it's heavily white. I'm no stranger to white people, I'm from a mostly white town. And let me tell you one thing. You oughta know who you're dealing with, like -- you gotta treat them like shit, like I mean that’s the only way they’ll respect you. I keep them right here, like under my thumbs. That's where I keep it. You have to, otherwise they get out of control, like kids."[14][15] In a statement, Matthews confirmed that her voice is heard in the recording and characterized the incident as an attack, referring to Project Veritas as a "satirical MAGA Powered news outlet".[16]

2018

Matthews was the only Democrat in her district to run in 2018, so there was no Democratic primary.

2020