Meet Brian Alston-Carter. You’ll want to remember his name
“I need to have a conversation with you,” said Lee County sheriff Daniel Simon to Brian Alston-Carter, a candidate for the South Carolina House of Representatives, at a 2014 campaign event. “I need you to ride with me to see something.”Simon provided Alston-Carter with a police escort as the pair drove about five miles on Martin Luther King Jr.
Memorial Highway to one of Alston-Carter’s campaign posters. A shotgun had blown a picture of his face off the sign. “I’m not a fearful person, so it didn’t scare me,” he said. “If anything, it motivated me more.”Motivation is a quality Alston-Carter does not lack.
To many, Alston-Carter — who identifies as a “same-gender-loving” Black man (or SGL, a culturally affirming term coined by activist Cleo Manago) in a conservative county — was a longshot in his attempt to unseat incumbent Rep.
Grady A. Brown, a local businessman who had held the office for 30 years, in the Democratic primary. And, in fact, Alston-Carter lost.
