On a typical Friday at Drake's Duck-In, Main Street's beloved, long-running fried chicken dive, the restaurant can get quite full, with construction workers and cops and homeless people and State House lobbyists and others swirling together to create one of downtown's most unique lunchtime melting pots.
But the Duck-In took on a more political feel on this Friday, as the 2020 presidential campaign found its way downtown. Former U.S. Rep. Beto O'Rourke, the Texas Democrat who officially announced his entry into the presidential race a week ago and made a splash in the crowded Democratic field by raising $6.1 million in the first 24 hours of his campaign, popped into Drake's for lunch, and was accompanied by Columbia Mayor Steve Benjamin.
(O'Rourke had chicken and waffles. The mayor, eschewing the more tried-and-true Duck-In favorites, opted for a salad.)
The Drake's visit was one of several South Carolina stops for O'Rourke on Friday. The 46-year-old, who was narrowly defeated by Republican Ted Cruz in a 2018 U.S. Senate race in Texas, opened his day by greeting supporters in Rock Hill. He also addressed students outside the Russell House student union at the University of South Carolina. On Saturday, the Texan is set to have a town hall discussion in Charleston hosted by state Sen. Marlon Kimpson.
O'Rourke, who served three terms in the U.S. House, told Free Times he was enthused to be stumping in the Palmetto State. He notes that, in Rock Hill, he got the chance to meet Willie McLeod, who was a member of the Friendship 9, a group of black men who led a lunch counter sit-in at McCrory's in Rock Hill in 1961. The men were arrested and jailed. Their convictions were overturned by the courts 54 years later, in 2015.
"This morning [in Rock Hill] was really powerful," O'Rourke said. "There was so much energy, so many people who came out. Beyond that, there were so many stories that we've already learned. The Friendship 9, getting to meet Willie McLeod, literally getting to go to the stool that he sat at before he was dragged out, arrested. He spent 30 days in jail because he refused to post bail and wanted to make sure he galvanized not just his community or South Carolina, but the attention of this country.
"That's a powerful way to understand some of our history and it is something that I hope powers our conscience and the way in which we want to campaign."
O'Rourke said he was grateful to be welcomed to Columbia by Benjamin.
"Everybody that we have met on the street knows him, and he knows their names," O'Rourke notes. "He knows the story behind every facade, every building [on Main Street]. He's literally telling the story of his city as we walked to Drake's to have lunch."
Benjamin, who is the president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, has played host to a number of 2020 Democratic presidential hopefuls that have visited Columbia this year. For instance, he moderated a town hall featuring U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris in February. On Saturday Benjamin is set to make introductory remarks at a Columbia appearance by Pete Buttigieg, who is the mayor of South Bend, Indiana, and is considering a presidential run. That event will be at 2:30 p.m. Saturday at The Venue on Main Street.
The mayor says he shares municipal interests with O'Rourke. Before being a member of Congress, O'Rourke was a member of El Paso City Council for six years.
"Like several other candidates, [O'Rourke] has a background in local government," Benjamin tells Free Times. "He gets some of the messages about everything from facade improvements to Community Development Block Grant funding, and building the urban core."
Benjamin says he has not yet endorsed anyone in the Democratic presidential field, but says he will at some point.
The Democratic presidential primary in South Carolina will be on Feb. 29, 2020.
