Skylar Laird

Skylar Laird

[email protected]

Skylar Laird covers the legislature and criminal justice issues at the South Carolina Daily Gazette. A University of Missouri graduate, she reported for the Kansas City Star and Columbia Missourian in her home state. She moved to South Carolina in 2022 to cover local government for The Post and Courier's Columbia bureau and earned a first-place award for beat reporting.

SC candidates for US Senate clash over diversity programs in final days of campaign sprint
South Carolina

SC candidates for US Senate clash over diversity programs in final days of campaign sprint

5:28pm ET
Skylar Laird
WEST COLUMBIA — As candidates sprint to make their pitches to voters ahead of the special Senate election Tuesday, questions over what qualifies as diversity, equity and inclusion have emerged as a central issue. Ten candidates are running to replace...
SC GOP will likely lose its case, judge says in keeping US Senate candidate in the race, for now
South Carolina

SC GOP will likely lose case, judge says in keeping US Senate candidate in the race, for now

Jul 31, 2026
Skylar Laird
COLUMBIA — A decertified candidate for U.S. Senate should stay a choice for voters for the time being, a Richland County judge ruled Friday, just five days before early voting starts. The decision came one day before the state’s deadline...
US Senate candidate disqualified by new GOP rule sues to get on the ballot
South Carolina

US Senate candidate disqualified by new GOP rule sues to get on the ballot

Jul 30, 2026
Skylar Laird
COLUMBIA — A decertified candidate for U.S. Senate is suing to get his name on the ballot. The state Republican Party decided Tuesday, after filing for the race closed, that three of the 12 people who signed up to run...
SC joins multi-state effort to combat fraud of taxpayers’ money
South Carolina

SC joins multi-state effort to combat fraud of taxpayers’ money

Jul 30, 2026
Skylar Laird
COLUMBIA — South Carolina is among seven Southern states that have agreed to share data and resources to crack down on fraud cases, officials from those states and the federal government said Thursday. Since President Donald Trump announced the creation...
Mourners say goodbye to US Sen. Lindsey Graham at SC Statehouse
South Carolina

Mourners say goodbye to US Sen. Lindsey Graham at SC Statehouse

Jul 29, 2026
Skylar Laird
COLUMBIA — South Carolinians said their farewells Wednesday as U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham made his last stop at the Statehouse, where his political career began 34 years ago. The longtime Republican senator died July 11, at age 71, of a...
‘One of the greatest’: Trump remembers US Sen. Lindsey Graham
South Carolina

‘One of the greatest’: Trump remembers US Sen. Lindsey Graham

Jul 28, 2026
Skylar Laird
President Donald Trump remembered the late U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham as an American idealist, a good golf buddy and “one of the great figures in Senate history” during a memorial service Tuesday in the nation’s capital. Graham died suddenly July...
SC aluminum smelter back to full production after a decade of lower capacity
South Carolina

SC aluminum smelter back to full production after a decade of lower capacity

Jul 27, 2026
Skylar Laird
A Lowcountry aluminum plant is back to running at full capacity for the first time in over a decade, leaders announced Monday. Century Aluminum’s Mt. Holly smelter in Berkeley County spent about $50 million to restart an idle portion of...
Tattoo parlor sues SC over 22-year-old law requiring distance from churches
South Carolina

Tattoo parlor sues SC over 22-year-old law requiring distance from churches

Jul 27, 2026
Skylar Laird
COLUMBIA — Whether tattoo artists have a constitutional right to ink near churches and schools is the central question of a federal lawsuit challenging a decades-old state law. South Carolina became the second-to-last state in the nation to allow tattooing...
14-year-old Greenville girl becomes SC’s first civics bee champion
South Carolina

14-year-old Greenville girl becomes SC’s first civics bee champion

Jul 23, 2026
Skylar Laird
COLUMBIA — The room went silent as seven middle school girls considered the question: What distinguishes intellectual virtues from moral virtues in Aristotle’s “Nicomachean Ethics”? If that sounds much more difficult than a typical middle school civics course, that’s because...
SC budget deal gives homeowners smaller break, postpones decisions on local projects
South Carolina

SC budget deal gives homeowners smaller break, postpones decisions on local projects

Jul 23, 2026
Skylar Laird
COLUMBIA — A weeks-long budget impasse broke Wednesday with a compromise that cuts a proposed tax break for seniors and approves none of the legislator-requested earmarks for local projects — at least, not yet. Since July 1, the state has...
5 plead guilty in SC prison bribery case
South Carolina

5 plead guilty in SC prison bribery case

Jul 22, 2026
Skylar Laird
COLUMBIA — A South Carolina prison guard, inmate and three relatives of the inmate pleaded guilty Wednesday to wire fraud in a bribery case, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. Lowanda Atkinson, a 52-year-old guard at Lee Correctional Institution, accepted...
Indiana woman sentenced to 27 months in prison for threatening Rep. Nancy Mace
South Carolina

Indiana woman sentenced to 27 months in prison for threatening Rep. Nancy Mace

Jul 21, 2026
Skylar Laird
An Indianapolis woman who pleaded guilty to threatening U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace will spend more than two years in prison, the Department of Justice said Tuesday. Shayla Addison was charged in January with sending text messages and emails to Mace’s...