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Her Opponent Defended a Child Predator. She's Had Enough. · Breaking The Meta

• Breaking The Meta: Hello everyone and welcome to Breaking the Meta. My name is Mike Winson. Today we are sitting down with Ashley Painter who is running for South Carolina House District 117. Hello Ashley, how are you doing today? Ashley Painter: Hi, I'm good. Thank you so much for having me. Breaking The Meta: Absolutely. Look forward to talking with you. So to start off, because obviously in this country, most people don't know even know their state representatives. We were talking before and you didn't know your state representative before this started. So let's start off with just learning a little bit about who you are and then why you decided to run in the first place. Ashley Painter: Okay, so I am 32. I have two kids and I'm married. I've been married for almost 10 years and currently I'm a small business owner. I do wedding photography mostly. It's very part time. But before that, I was in the human services field. My very first job was doing, or not adoptions, that was my second, family-based therapy. And then after that, I transitioned to adoptions and foster care ⁓ because I was a foster child from 15 to 18 when I aged out. ⁓ And then I have experience doing ⁓ alcohol and drug ⁓ therapy. So alcohol and substance use counselor is what it's called. ⁓ my bachelor's degree is in sociology with an emphasis in social work. So ⁓ I've always had a calling to help people. Breaking The Meta: Yeah. Yeah. Ashley Painter: look like this to me whenever I was envisioning it. You know, it looked like being an LCSW. It looked like, ⁓ you know, I always wanted to help influence policies in social work. ⁓ I never saw myself running for a political position. So this is new, but it's something that I'm really excited about. Breaking The Meta: Yeah. Yeah. You didn't think go from photography to representative of your district in the state house. I'm surprised by that. I feel like that's most people's dreams, Yeah, yeah. what did make you decide to run in the first place? Ashley Painter: Right, yeah, no. So I'm really active in the community. volunteer, especially with my business. ⁓ I like to serve people who need extra help. I volunteer with an organization that does a lot for babies in the NICU here in Charleston at MUSC, Sean Jenkins. And I volunteer my time and my talent with ⁓ Breaking The Meta: Mmm. Ashley Painter: one of the local animal shelters. also offer sessions. I haven't had anybody take me up yet on it, but I offer sessions that are heavily discounted for foster care children who are seniors and need senior portraits, or infants who are going in and they need ⁓ like portraits, you know, maybe to send back to their birth parents or something. I because I, want to help. I've always been in the helping field. So with my Breaking The Meta: Mm. Ashley Painter: volunteer outreach, I also started to get involved politically, especially with how things are going. ⁓ It was hard for me the last few years because, you know, I have two children. One of them is three, the other one is seven. So there was I was really limited on what I could do, but they're getting older now. So I'm able to go out and join ⁓ marches and demonstrations more. And so I reached out to my county Democratic Party. and said, hey, I know these midterms are super important. What can I do to help? Because I was volunteering with Charleston County a lot, ⁓ because they're huge. ⁓ their county chair, Pastor Thomas Dixon, he's all over the place. He's phenomenal. ⁓ But then I was like, well, I live in Berkeley County. So what can I do in Berkeley County? So I emailed them, and their response was, here's the link to volunteer, but. we would like to know if you would like to run for House District 117. And I was like, what does that mean? And so we talked about it. And once I learned more, I was like, how could I not? Breaking The Meta: that's amazing to me because I think there are a lot of people in this country that ⁓ would ⁓ just like, how can I not? And it is actually amazing to me in all of these interviews I'm doing how many people are actually out here just like you that are going. I saw a need. I saw no one was going in, so I just did it. So ⁓ I a lot of respect for people like you who ⁓ Ashley Painter: Yeah. Breaking The Meta: answer the call when especially in your district where as you were telling me earlier last last go around last election nobody ran and he just he just skirted right through and got in so ⁓ Ashley Painter: Yeah. And of course, we had to, I talked about it with my husband, you know, because this, was not an easy decision to come to. I wanted to make sure that my family was going to first be okay and that it wasn't going to ⁓ cause any tension between me and my husband. He's a very busy man. He works very hard. And my role for the last few years has been, you know, caring for the kids. And I'm so lucky. I have such a supportive partner, he lifts me up and I do the same for him and that's why I'm able to do this. So once we got through that and we talked it over and kind of like laid it all out and talked about what it could possibly mean, the good and the bad, he blew me away. He said, I don't want our boys to grow up in a world where all they see is hate or... Breaking The Meta: Yeah. Yeah. Ashley Painter: or that they feel like they can't do something. So he said he wanted them to see me doing this and I like I teared up. So that after I had his blessing, like we came to that decision together. I was on the phone with everybody like people reached out to me and they were just so willing to help. Breaking The Meta: So let's continue on and learn just a little bit about your district. As you've gone around and talked to people in your district, obviously you said you're very active in it, which is great. What are the things that people in your district need your help with? What are the pain points in your district, the stuff that they want help from you? when you win and are sitting in as a representative of the 117th district. Ashley Painter: So one of the biggest issues, not just only in my district, but in South Carolina are the roads. And ⁓ that comes down to the state budget. ⁓ Other items that they want to see something done about is the growth in the area, not necessarily stopping the growth, but at least getting to a place where the infrastructure can keep up with the growth. ⁓ We've got several schools that are just overflowed. You've got homes living in districts where the schools are full. So the parents are having like the kids are having to go out of their district to go to a school. ⁓ And so that's a big issue. ⁓ Another big issue is the cost of living, which is what I'm campaigning on. Breaking The Meta: Wow. Yeah. Ashley Painter: and that's everything from food to health care ⁓ to just child care is a really big one. We don't have enough child care. The places that have ⁓ the good ratings and the good or better staff because coming from a human services background, I know that there are good child care centers and then there are very mediocre child care centers where it might cost less, but you get what you pay for. ⁓ Even those places are overfilled. So people are getting on waiting lists, they're never getting put in. Our ABC voucher has been paused since January, like the funding is stopped. And so unless you are a part of one of the protected groups, like having a disability, ⁓ you're not, your family's not getting childcare. So people are literally Breaking The Meta: Mm. Ashley Painter: quitting their jobs or reducing their hours because they can't afford childcare. And the cost of living here is so high. Everything. have ⁓ the state income tax, is high. We have ⁓ the vehicle tax that you have to pay every year. You've got your property taxes, which are going up because of gentrification and all of the people moving in. ⁓ I mean, on top of that, there are a lot of subdivisions here where on top of your mortgage and your homeowners insurance, you have your HOA dues. ⁓ So cost of living is so high. And then one of the most recent things that has ⁓ come up in the spotlight is Dominion. ⁓ And they're raising or they want to raise the electricity rates again, and they just raised them less than a year ago. So it's the cost of living is Breaking The Meta: ⁓ Ashley Painter: something that's really high. Other than that, ⁓ really, I feel like those are the district. Yeah, yeah. Breaking The Meta: I mean, that's enough. don't, there doesn't have to be more problems in your district, but. Ashley Painter: No, I was just trying to think of anything that I missed. Really, the cost of living and the roads are the biggest. The biggest ones. Breaking The Meta: Yeah. Yeah. When you were talking about childcare, I hate to bring it up, but I really feel like I have to. I don't know if you saw the clip of our current president saying that we can't afford to pay for people's childcare, because we're spending we're spending all our money on wars. Ashley Painter: It's disgusting to hear that. it confuses me is what it does because we know that working families, they contribute to the community. When parents are able to work, the city and the state benefit from that. And when children go to ⁓ quality childcare, Breaking The Meta: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Ashley Painter: They grow up to be better adults who also contribute to society. ⁓ like, so to, I think a lot of people hear childcare and they think, ⁓ who, I didn't get free childcare, so why do you need free childcare? Or they think it only benefits the families receiving it. And it's not true. It benefits all of us because those same kids are gonna grow up and be the adults that are working and a part of. Breaking The Meta: Yeah. Mm-hmm. Ashley Painter: society, know, right? My husband works in the railroad. And one of the biggest issues with him getting people to be able to come to work is childcare. There's no part time care. There's no overnight care that I know of. and railroad doesn't stop railroad is 24 seven. Breaking The Meta: Yep. Yep. Mm. No. Yep. Yeah. One of the other issues that we have with that we're having in this country with politicians and it's both a conservative or a progressive problem is this idea of accountability or the lack thereof when it comes to all of our politicians. What does accountability mean to you? What does being held accountable by your district look like? Ashley Painter: This is such a good question ⁓ because it's my personal belief that our very own representative that we have right now is not being held accountable for what he has not done for the district and for the embarrassment that he's brought on it by his ⁓ refusal to cooperate in the ⁓ investigation going into RJ May. Do you know who RJ May is? Breaking The Meta: Yeah. No. Ashley Painter: Okay, so Sparks notes, RJ May is the person who ⁓ started the South Carolina Freedom Caucus. ⁓ Okay, so he started that group, ⁓ very conservative, very far right guy gets all these people at the same time, he is distributing CSAM, ⁓ which is child sexual abuse material. ⁓ And Breaking The Meta: ⁓ okay. Ashley Painter: It was a really big thing that happened here. A lot of the politicians in the state house knew about it, including my opponent. They knew what the charges were. It took, I think, over a year for R.J. May to be even ⁓ indicted or charged. He served a whole term in the state house while he was being investigated for, and these were vile videos. You have to like... Breaking The Meta: Yeah. Yeah. Ashley Painter: I just, the worst things you can imagine are what he was sending. ⁓ And so Jordan Pace is in that Freedom Caucus. he, first of all, never apologized for ⁓ delaying the investigation or wasting taxpayer dollars on having these people had to force him to cooperate essentially. Breaking The Meta: Yep. Yep. Ashley Painter: And then aside from that, he's focused on all of these extreme viewpoints that he has. Like one of the most recent things that he and some of the other Freedom Caucus members did was ⁓ send out a resolution to Supreme Courts to reconsider or repeal ⁓ gay marriage rights. Meanwhile, we're here with these needs and he's not meeting them. I went through, I've looked at his bills and they're just not in line with what we need. The best thing he can say about himself is that he wants no ⁓ state taxes, like no South Carolina state taxes, but even that is too extreme for the state right now. I don't know if he thought maybe we could go from where we were to zero in one bite. Breaking The Meta: Yeah. Yeah. Ashley Painter: but it didn't happen. And now look what we're dealing with. They in the state house ⁓ approved ⁓ a flat rate income tax for the state, which means families like mine in similar incomes are going to actually be paying more. We're going to be taxed at the same rate as people who make triple our income. And the wealthy people are going to pay less. accountability looks like A, being called out on it, but B, addressing it. He's ignored it. He has not acknowledged or responded to anything. And I don't know if it's like a tactic or something, or maybe he's just hoping it will go away. But a lot of the people in the district are not happy. And he's not even able to apologize. Breaking The Meta: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Mm. Yeah. Ashley Painter: or take responsibility. Breaking The Meta: Yeah, responsibility, accountability, there definitely feel like ideals that have become lost in a lot of society, not just politics, unfortunately. ⁓ Donald Trump and people of his like, we're dealing we were dealing with that problem and the lack of accountability for people like him way before he got into office. Unfortunately, it's just kind of Now it's out in the lime, it's out in front of our face, worse than ever. Ashley Painter: Mm-hmm. Breaking The Meta: So. No, know, as you've, you know, as you again, as you've been going around, and as you've been talking with people, as you've been interacting with people, and as you've been thinking about what you would do when you are elected. What, if you had the ability to snap your fingers and change something that you've seen going on in the house or the way the South Carolina house runs, what would you want to change? Ashley Painter: ⁓ there are so many things because we have a lot going on right now. ⁓ Like it almost feels ⁓ like evil to only have to pick one because they're all equally important. ⁓ No, I'll pick one and it's it's got to be the expansion of Medicaid for insurance. Our insurance is incredibly high. The premiums are incredibly high. People are under covered or not covered at all. And Breaking The Meta: Yeah. You can pick two if you want. Mmm. Ashley Painter: Contrary to popular belief, South Carolina does not cover every single child. So we have children who are underinsured or not insured at all. And being from my background, I have always served families and children. so children without health insurance bothers me because they don't do as well. And it's not fair to them that they can't be taken care of medically, or it's not fair to them. that their parents are forced to file bankruptcy or ⁓ be sued for medical debt because their parents did get them care, but then they couldn't afford to pay the bills. ⁓ Just health insurance, know, having health insurance would help address the mental health crisis that we're seeing in the state. ⁓ It would lessen the burden on families and, you know, loosen up some of the Breaking The Meta: Mm-hmm. Ashley Painter: or lessen the amount of money that they're paying out of pocket on the high premiums. And then, you know, they have to meet the deductible or, you know, they have an out of pocket maximum. And then even when they meet those things, they're still getting bills in the mail. It happens to my family. Since you said pick two, I am going to pick two. The second one is it's it's abortion laws. We have women dying. Breaking The Meta: Mm, yeah. Ashley Painter: We have some of the most extreme abortion laws in the country and it's because of the Freedom Caucus and my opponent Jordan Pace pushing this agenda. They believe, and Jordan Pace co-sponsors a bill that would ⁓ completely ban abortions from the time of conception and not include any exceptions for rape or incest. So you're a man. Do you know how young a female can be when she starts to have her period. Breaking The Meta: Well, I have a daughter, and if I remember correctly, how early can they? It's usually around 13, right? 12, 13, something like that. Ashley Painter: Okay. So, and it's getting earlier and earlier as the years go on. And I know that used to be like attributed to hormones and milk. So that was a big thing. a girl, a little girl as young as eight years old, I think, and I looked it up on record, the youngest girl to have her period was eight years old. And it's common. mean, it really depends on your DNA. It depends on your body weight. Breaking The Meta: ⁓ wow. Wow. Ashley Painter: It depends on when your mom got her first period. So that is... have two sons. But I have three nieces. it just... I can't... imagining them having to first go through something like a rape and then... Breaking The Meta: Mm-hmm. Ashley Painter: be forced to carry out a pregnancy as a result of that rape and like your their parents don't get a say like the the person the child doesn't get a say ⁓ it's it's extreme nobody wants it except for him and his freedom caucus Breaking The Meta: Right. Yeah. How how have things obviously as as a member of South Carolina House, you don't interact with federal with the federal government directly. But obviously, you have to deal with things that the federal government does or doesn't do for your state. How has things like the big, beautiful bill and the tariffs and even the current war in Iran, how have those choices by the federal government affected your district? Ashley Painter: So everybody saw gas prices rise. ⁓ The big, beautiful bill. When I was working at the methadone clinic that I was at, when I was doing drug and alcohol counseling, ⁓ as I was leaving, we were being made aware that ⁓ it was a grant program to help people who did not have insurance or couldn't afford insurance or couldn't afford treatment ⁓ could have treatment provided to them. You know, they had to qualify, they had to put an application in, and you know, they weren't on that program forever. It was usually, ⁓ you know, we do six months at a time and say, like the whole time, you know, you're doing your counseling sessions, hey, ⁓ you're still on the grant funding program. What are we doing to help make sure that you get off of that? A lot of times it was, hey, I got a job, and they would get a job, and then they would do self-pay. for their program, or they get a job and then they were offered insurance. that program, when I was leaving, the funding, the managers were told that it was being stopped. So what was left in the pot, once it was gone, it was gone. And I mean, that clinic that I was at served over 400 people. And at least Breaking The Meta: ⁓ man. Yeah. Ashley Painter: one third of them were on that grant funding program. So now you have people who are in this community and rely on this medication to keep them off of things like heroin Breaking The Meta: Wow. Ashley Painter: so ⁓ the methadone keeps the people off ⁓ from using or ⁓ the cravings to use fentanyl. ⁓ Fentanyl's deadly. ⁓ Breaking The Meta: Yeah. Yep. Ashley Painter: And you know, now we're looking, and that's a part of the big, beautiful bill, all of the cuts to the social programs that were deemed waste or, you know, just not worthy. ⁓ You know, it stems into, like we talked about earlier, childcare, ⁓ SNAP benefits. We've seen the SNAP benefits be decreased and, ⁓ you know, they put in the work requirements. So it's really just, there's a lot of scrutiny coming down on the programs as well. Breaking The Meta: Yeah. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Ashley Painter: And it's not helping the people or the organizations who rely on them or, you know, and the organizations who help serve those populations. Breaking The Meta: Mm. So for everyone that has listened up into this point and heard everything that you and I have talked about, what are one or two things that you would want to make sure that they know about you and your campaign no matter what? Ashley Painter: Okay, so being from a human services and social work background, I am a trained listener. I don't make decisions without thinking about them and without, you know, checking in with people. It's how I'm trained. So I'm trained to sit and listen. I'm trained to be rational. And I'm, I'm trained to also be ethical. ⁓ Breaking The Meta: Mm-hmm. Ashley Painter: I'm not the typical career politician who wants to be doing this for power. And I feel like we have a lot of that. ⁓ I would love nothing more than to be in my comfy cozy home with my children, know, editing photographs and, ⁓ you know, hanging out with my husband. I love to garden, you know, being out there gardening. Breaking The Meta: Yeah Sure. Ashley Painter: But I can't, we can't afford for me to do that. I need to be out there doing this because he needs to go. So if I, when I'm elected, ⁓ I'm going to be the lawmaker that truly listens and wants to have open town halls for the people of my district. You know, ⁓ I'm just, I'm a trained listener. I'm also very empathetic. There's not Breaking The Meta: Yeah. Mm. Yeah. Ashley Painter: very much that I haven't seen. I've seen people who live in campers with absolutely no electricity, no bathroom, and they have bed bugs or lice or even scabies once. ⁓ was in a house with people. ⁓ When we moved here, sorry, my nose runs a lot. ⁓ When we moved here, there was a girl who posted on Facebook and ⁓ she was, I think, 15. Breaking The Meta: Mm. Ashley Painter: and she had no home and she was pregnant and without even knowing her and full well knowing that this could be like this could be a trap whatever you know I was like I have to help this girl because she posted on Facebook asking if anybody would let her stay with them and my first thought was ⁓ my gosh if this is a real girl and she's really pregnant she can't just go stay with a stranger she could die so I reached out to her Breaking The Meta: Yeah. Yeah. Ashley Painter: and ⁓ she didn't end up staying with me, but we got her situated in a home where she was welcome to stay. We got her situated, but she showed me where she was living. And she lived ⁓ in the middle of woods with her mom, who was also homeless, and with another family that was homeless. They were all in this, she called it the tin can. And what it was, was the back of a tractor trailer, like a metal shipping container. ⁓ And they had no ⁓ Breaking The Meta: Yeah. Ashley Painter: They had a hose hooked up, like a really long hose that they were running from the neighbor's house to use as an outdoor shower. I said, where do you use the restroom? The woods. ⁓ And they had dogs there. It was just, it was really, really horrible to see. so that's the kind of person that I am. I went out there with this girl, saw where she was. I took her and her mom around all day. We got her mom, her driver's license. Breaking The Meta: Mm. Mm. Ashley Painter: We got them to the bank so that because the girl was working and she couldn't get to the bank to deposit her checks. And ⁓ so I took her to the bank and she was able to deposit her checks. Just these little tasks that we take for granted every single day, having a car, having the ability to go out and, ⁓ you know, just do your normal ⁓ housekeeping things. I helped them do that. So since her mom had her driver's license, finally. Breaking The Meta: Yeah. Yeah. Ashley Painter: she was able to apply for housing, which she couldn't do before. haven't kept up with them because her mom didn't have a phone. And after the girl was settled, we phased away from each other. know she's had her baby. I creep every now and then on social media to see how she's doing. But she looks like she's doing OK. that's just who I am. Breaking The Meta: ⁓ Right. Hehehehe Ashley Painter: I like to help people. Breaking The Meta: Well, Ashley, I look forward to seeing your victory in November and seeing how you get to help the people of District 117 and the rest of South Carolina in the process. So thank you for sitting down, letting us to get to know you and just learn about what you hope to do. I appreciate it. Ashley Painter: Absolutely. Thanks for having me and bearing with me Breaking The Meta: For everyone else that has listened this far, watched this far, thank you so much. ⁓ Please like, subscribe, hit all those buttons down below. It makes it possible for me to keep doing what I'm doing, which is interview amazing people like Ashley right here and so many other people around the country that are trying to fix all of these problems that we've talked about for decades in some cases. ⁓ So please watch, like, subscribe, comment on this video. ⁓ It helps. helps. And before we go, ⁓ Ashley, for anyone that wants to learn more about you and maybe support you in any way, where can they find you? Ashley Painter: I was just about to ask you if I could ask people if you want to donate, if you want to learn more, my website is very simple. It's www.ashleypainter.com. It's got a little donate button. You can, there's a bio on me and there's a page on my opponent if you want to learn more about him that I didn't share here because there's more guys. But yeah, just, know, if you're bored, go read it. Breaking The Meta: Yep. Yep. Or if you're not bored, just go read it. Because again, people like Ashley and people across the country ⁓ need help. They're not taking in millions of dollars. can't just they can't just throw money for ads. So they need people to watch and share and give them ⁓ name recognition and visibility in a more organic way. So it's something easy that everyone can do. So please watch, subscribe, comment, all that stuff and watch their content too. So Again, Ashley, thank you so much for being here. And for everyone else, if you don't know about Breaking the Meta, just so you know, this podcast is all about having hard conversations when necessary, fighting to break the status quo, and the idea that all people, no matter your race, religion, gender, or identity, deserve rights, respect, dignity, and safety. Ashley, thank you for being here, and everyone else will see you next time on Breaking the Meta. Bye, guys.