Latest / The Breakfast Club / INTERVIEW: Jermaine Johnson Talks 2026 Midterms, Protecting South Carolina Homeowners, Data Centers + More

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INTERVIEW: Jermaine Johnson Talks 2026 Midterms, Protecting South Carolina Homeowners, Data Centers + More · The Breakfast Club

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Hold up. Every day I wake up. Wake your ass up.
• 0:03
  Speaker 2: The Breakfast Club.
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Y'all finished or y'all done?
• 0:06
  Speaker 2: Morning, everybody.
• 0:07
  Speaker 3: It's DJ Envy, Just Hilarious, Charlamagne Tha Guy. We are
• 0:11
  Speaker 3: The Breakfast Club. We got a special guest in the building.
• 0:14
  Speaker 3: We got the brother.
• 0:14
  Speaker 2: He's back, Dr.
• 0:15
  Speaker 3: Jermaine Johnson.
• 0:16
  Speaker 2: Welcome, brother. Oh, man. Appreciate y'all having me back on here, man.
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: Democratic nominee for governor of South Carolina.
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: South Carolina.
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: We got like a couple weeks left? Yeah, man.
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: About, I don't know, like 13 days or something.
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: 13 days? How you feeling, man? How you feeling about
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: your chances, bro? You definitely got people excited.
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: Man, listen, as you have seen already, people are fired up, man.
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: They're excited about this race. People who have not voted
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: in a long time are, like, coming out to vote.
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: You know, a lot of them hood guys that, you know,
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: you've seen, they are showing up. They're excited about the
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: possibility of building this new South Carolina, man.
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: What does new South Carolina look like to you?
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: New South Carolina means actually driving down some smoothly paid roads,
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: being able to go to your one well-paying job, dropping
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: your children off at a well-funded, supported public school, and
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: being able to have a safe neighborhood, man, and actually
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: being able to call 911 and get to a hospital
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: in time. Because in South Carolina, you know that a
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: lot of rural hospitals have been closing down. So we
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: want to open some of those back up and actually
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: give people the care that they need.
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: One thing I want to talk to you about, man,
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: in places like Monk's Corner, where I'm from, Berkeley County,
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: you know, the land values are increasing so much. Like
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: how do you encourage development without pricing out people who've
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: been living there forever?
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: Well, I've been telling people even in my own district, right?
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: So my, my own district is probably the largest concentration
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: of black land ownership, like in the country, right? I
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: live in lower Richland. And I've always encouraged people, do
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: not sell your land. Do not sell your land. Because
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: we know that's for generational wealth, having land ownership. So
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: we have to make sure that we are encouraging people
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: to be able to afford their homes, but also stay
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: in their homes, keep ownership of that land. And we've
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: got to do that through some types of policies, land
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: trusts and things like that, to actually provide people these opportunities.
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: But right now, man, they're struggling. They're struggling with just
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: being able to pay a light bill, man. And it's tough.
• 2:07
  Speaker 4: Do you explain to people, you know, when you have that,
• 2:09
  Speaker 4: because you always say it a lot of times, especially
• 2:10
  Speaker 4: with older family members, when people pass, right, and they
• 2:13
  Speaker 4: acquire their grandmother's property or their parents' property or their
• 2:15
  Speaker 4: great-grandmother's property, they don't know what to do, right? So
• 2:18
  Speaker 4: they just think it's theirs, and they be like, that's
• 2:19
  Speaker 4: my property, I just got it. And they don't understand,
• 2:21
  Speaker 4: you still got to pay taxes.
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: Got to pay them taxes.
• 2:22
  Speaker 3: You still got to maintain it.
• 2:23
  Speaker 4: So do y'all have something to explain that to people
• 2:26
  Speaker 4: where they do understand that even though it's yours, it
• 2:29
  Speaker 4: can be taken from you in no time at all?
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: There's a lady by the name of Hattie Frooster who
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: used to live in Lower Richland. And she had some
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: land and she passed away and her family couldn't pay
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: the taxes. And then I went to a tax hill
• 2:40
  Speaker 2: in Richland County. And all of a sudden I saw
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: her name go across the screen and her land was
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: going up for sale. And some big developer bought the land.
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: And that was the problem. That's why I've been outspoken
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: about this stuff about, you know, reducing or getting rid
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: of property tax in South Carolina, because I don't think
• 2:54
  Speaker 2: I should be having to rent my property from the
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: government for the rest of my life. I didn't pay
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: 30 years of a mortgage and I got to spend
• 2:59
  Speaker 2: the rest of my life paying property taxes because the
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: first thing they're going to do is come in here
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: and take your land up and sell it to somebody else.
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: And I think that's the problem. So we got to
• 3:07
  Speaker 2: get rid of that. We got to check that issue
• 3:10
  Speaker 2: that we got going on. But I've been explaining as
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: much as I possibly can. Because right now I've got
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: a platform.
• 3:14
  Speaker 3: Is that possible? Yeah, it's possible.
• 3:17
  Speaker 2: How much money do you think they spend on these
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: private little places where you can't even go into? We
• 3:23
  Speaker 2: have representatives and senators that will spend $ 10, $ 20, $ 30
• 3:26
  Speaker 2: million on a private plot of land that you can't
• 3:29
  Speaker 2: even go into. Only special interest individuals can go into it.
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: Only liabilities can go into it. You have to be
• 3:34
  Speaker 2: a government official to go into it. I think that's
• 3:35
  Speaker 2: a problem. They're using your tax dollars to pay for
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: private places that you can't even go into.
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: Imagine if somebody comes to somebody in South Carolina and
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: they're like, look, I want to buy these two acres
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: from you for a couple of million dollars. You ain't
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: never seen that kind of money in your life. But
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: you like Dr. Jermaine Johnson told me, don't sell.
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: What do you do?
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: Yeah. And that's one of the things. So I liken
• 3:56
  Speaker 2: it back to my even in my campaign. So back
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: in the primary, you know, I was running against a
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: billionaire and a multimillionaire. And I had a lot of
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: loyal people who were with me who were saying, listen, man,
• 4:05
  Speaker 2: they throwing money at me to come work on this campaign.
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: I will never stand in the way of somebody getting
• 4:10
  Speaker 2: some money when they know that it could be life-changing
• 4:13
  Speaker 2: money for them. So if that happens, I won't fault
• 4:16
  Speaker 2: you for it. I understand. But the only thing we
• 4:18
  Speaker 2: could do is create that village to come around those
• 4:21
  Speaker 2: people and support them and provide every opportunity that we
• 4:23
  Speaker 2: can for these families to say, hey, listen, I know
• 4:26
  Speaker 2: these people are throwing money at you, but here's this
• 4:28
  Speaker 2: resource over here or here's this program over here. Let
• 4:31
  Speaker 2: us talk to you about reconsidering selling your land because
• 4:34
  Speaker 2: it doesn't just affect you. It's going to affect the
• 4:36
  Speaker 2: entire community in which that land is in.
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: That's right. That's right.
• 4:39
  Speaker 2: You chose Sam's Garden as your running mate? Yeah. What
• 4:42
  Speaker 2: does he bring that you don't? Oh, man. So Sam,
• 4:45
  Speaker 2: if y'all don't know who Sam is, his father was
• 4:47
  Speaker 2: Steve's garden. He was working for Bill Clinton way back
• 4:50
  Speaker 2: in the day. Does a lot of environmental stuff. But Sam,
• 4:53
  Speaker 2: he's one of those guys, you know, we needed allies
• 4:55
  Speaker 2: to get where we are. So Sam's family has always
• 4:57
  Speaker 2: been an ally. He even named his children. He's got
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: two twin boys, four years old. He named his children
• 5:03
  Speaker 2: Lewis and Lawson. Right. After Congressman John Lewis and the
• 5:07
  Speaker 2: civil rights leader, Reverend Lawson. This lets you know that,
• 5:11
  Speaker 2: you know, he's not just about talking about things. He's
• 5:13
  Speaker 2: about action. He's not afraid to put this into his
• 5:15
  Speaker 2: bloodline and carry on these legacies for people. So he's
• 5:18
  Speaker 2: a small business guy. He does commercial lending to, like,
• 5:21
  Speaker 2: the line cooks that are trying to open up their
• 5:23
  Speaker 2: own restaurant, the barber who wants to get his own,
• 5:26
  Speaker 2: his first barbershop. So he's about, you know, providing opportunities
• 5:29
  Speaker 2: for people who don't get that traditional type of banking
• 5:31
  Speaker 2: money that are always pushed away. So he's allowing people
• 5:35
  Speaker 2: to meet those dreams.
• 5:36
  Speaker 4: Now, if, I don't want to say if elected, when elected,
• 5:38
  Speaker 4: you will become South Carolina's first black governor.
• 5:41
  Speaker 3: What does that mean?
• 5:42
  Speaker 2: Man, well, first off, you know, I've let everybody know
• 5:45
  Speaker 2: that I'm not running to be the first black governor.
• 5:47
  Speaker 2: I'm running to actually put the priorities of the state
• 5:50
  Speaker 2: back on track. But it does, I've been traveling around
• 5:54
  Speaker 2: the state in South Carolina and to meet those 95-year-old
• 5:57
  Speaker 2: black women, them 100-year-old black women. I had a 91-year-old
• 6:01
  Speaker 2: black woman come present me a hand-sewn quilt at one
• 6:04
  Speaker 2: of the churches. And, you know, to see all these
• 6:06
  Speaker 2: black women stand up and cry and say, Jermaine, we've
• 6:09
  Speaker 2: been praying for you all our life. We've been waiting
• 6:12
  Speaker 2: for this moment all of our life. It's a humbling
• 6:14
  Speaker 2: experience for myself and for my wife, because we just
• 6:17
  Speaker 2: want to make them proud. We just want to make
• 6:18
  Speaker 2: them proud. They've been praying their entire life. They've been
• 6:20
  Speaker 2: marching their entire life. They've been fighting their entire life.
• 6:23
  Speaker 2: And they never thought that they would ever see a
• 6:25
  Speaker 2: black man like me being able to run for a
• 6:27
  Speaker 2: governor of South Carolina, you know, but what that means
• 6:30
  Speaker 2: to the rest of the country is is that can
• 6:32
  Speaker 2: y'all imagine if they elect me as the next governor
• 6:34
  Speaker 2: of South Carolina, what that's going to mean for the
• 6:36
  Speaker 2: rest of America? They're going to be like, man, if
• 6:39
  Speaker 2: they can do it in South Carolina, we can do
• 6:41
  Speaker 2: it here.
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: That means I'm going to get a pardon, too. I'm
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: going to get old drug charges and all gun charges
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: off my back.
• 6:47
  Speaker 2: Speaking of which, yeah. Speaking of which, so my plan
• 6:50
  Speaker 2: is to pardon all nonviolent cannabis-related offenses.
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: I want to pardon.
• 6:54
  Speaker 2: All nonviolent cannabis-related offenses in South Carolina because It makes
• 6:57
  Speaker 2: no sense for other states completely to be legalized, and
• 7:00
  Speaker 2: you come to South Carolina. I done met a man
• 7:02
  Speaker 2: who was doing 37 years for cannabis.
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: 37 years.
• 7:06
  Speaker 2: I mean, it's ridiculous, man. So I want to legalize
• 7:09
  Speaker 2: medicinal cannabis and tax it and utilize that to pay
• 7:12
  Speaker 2: for those raggedy rolls that we have.
• 7:14
  Speaker 4: I'd be confused if I go to South Carolina if
• 7:15
  Speaker 4: people can smoke or not because sometimes I smell it,
• 7:17
  Speaker 4: but I'm like, it's not medicinal.
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: It's only medicinal.
• 7:20
  Speaker 2: It's not legal at all. It's not legal at all. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 7:23
  Speaker 2: So I got you, man.
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: I saw it. Oh, thank you. I'm holding you to that.
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: I'm holding you to that. Allen Wilson, he questioned your
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: legislative right.
• 7:31
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: And your ability to build what he called bipartisan relationships.
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: Like what's the strongest example you can give of bringing
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: people together to accomplish something meaningful?
• 7:41
  Speaker 2: So one of the things that I've already done was
• 7:43
  Speaker 2: I was able to get a law passed. It's called
• 7:45
  Speaker 2: a proviso that created the CVIP program in South Carolina.
• 7:49
  Speaker 2: CVIP stands for Community Violence Intervention and Prevention. It's a
• 7:52
  Speaker 2: department housing side of the Department of Public Safety. And
• 7:54
  Speaker 2: what it does is it provides micro grants to grassroots
• 7:57
  Speaker 2: organizations around South Carolina that are fighting against violence and
• 7:59
  Speaker 2: gun violence. Because we know in South Carolina there's a
• 8:02
  Speaker 2: higher homicide rate than California. We have over 600 unsolved
• 8:06
  Speaker 2: murders in South Carolina just since 2020. So this program
• 8:09
  Speaker 2: is needed. It is needed. And I was the one
• 8:11
  Speaker 2: who got that created. There's money there. They're already giving
• 8:14
  Speaker 2: money out to organizations so they can stop having to
• 8:16
  Speaker 2: pass the hats around at events and try to fundraise
• 8:19
  Speaker 2: that way. They need to be able to get real
• 8:22
  Speaker 2: money to solve these issues because our young people right now,
• 8:24
  Speaker 2: you know it already, man. These young people out here,
• 8:26
  Speaker 2: they killing each other, man. I mean, they are out
• 8:28
  Speaker 2: here getting guns and they're just shooting each other all day.
• 8:31
  Speaker 2: These people in these communities, they are close to the problem,
• 8:33
  Speaker 2: so they are close to the solution. And we need
• 8:34
  Speaker 2: to give them some funds to actually help, you know,
• 8:36
  Speaker 2: keep our community safe.
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: If you become governor and Republicans still control the legislature,
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: what's three things that you could accomplish in your first
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: year where you wouldn't even need Republicans?
• 8:46
  Speaker 2: Man, I'm going to create some labor councils and a
• 8:49
  Speaker 2: young person council. So these young people, I want to
• 8:52
  Speaker 2: create a council where between the age of 18 and 35,
• 8:55
  Speaker 2: where they help me shape the vision for the new
• 8:59
  Speaker 2: South Carolina. Because we talk about young people being our future,
• 9:02
  Speaker 2: but I don't believe young people are the future. I
• 9:04
  Speaker 2: believe young people are the present. Because young people, if
• 9:06
  Speaker 2: we don't invest in young people right now, there is
• 9:08
  Speaker 2: no future for them to inherit. So I want them
• 9:10
  Speaker 2: to be involved in the civic process. And everybody talks about, well,
• 9:13
  Speaker 2: why don't young people vote? Why aren't they involved? Why
• 9:17
  Speaker 2: aren't they doing anything? Well, we need to start talking
• 9:19
  Speaker 2: to them. I mean, we talk around them. We talk
• 9:22
  Speaker 2: at them. We don't ever ask them, well, what do
• 9:24
  Speaker 2: you want to see your state look like? How do
• 9:26
  Speaker 2: you want to envision your state for the future? And
• 9:28
  Speaker 2: they're all struggling right now. I mean, they can't buy
• 9:30
  Speaker 2: a house. They can't get no good jobs. They're just like, man,
• 9:33
  Speaker 2: what's going on? So I want to involve them in
• 9:35
  Speaker 2: the civic process.
• 9:36
  Speaker 3: At one time, you said you were considering dropping out
• 9:38
  Speaker 3: of the race early on.
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: You didn't.
• 9:41
  Speaker 3: What made you stay on it and who convinced you
• 9:42
  Speaker 3: not to leave?
• 9:43
  Speaker 2: Man, listen, if you saw what was going on in
• 9:46
  Speaker 2: South Carolina once the rumor got out that I was
• 9:48
  Speaker 2: considering getting out of the race, these people in South
• 9:51
  Speaker 2: Carolina went crazy. I mean, they were talking about boycotting
• 9:55
  Speaker 2: the election. They were talking about they weren't going to
• 9:57
  Speaker 2: do anything. They were going to write in people. I mean,
• 9:59
  Speaker 2: they were saying, all different types of things. My phone
• 10:02
  Speaker 2: did not stop ringing. Like my text messages, all my email,
• 10:04
  Speaker 2: everything was just blowing up because people were saying, Jermaine,
• 10:07
  Speaker 2: you finally gave us some hope. Like you finally gave
• 10:10
  Speaker 2: us something to believe in. And we need you to
• 10:12
  Speaker 2: stay in here. We need you to continue fighting. And
• 10:14
  Speaker 2: I thought to myself, what made me stay in was
• 10:16
  Speaker 2: that we have every seat is contested this year. And
• 10:20
  Speaker 2: I thought to myself, I said, man, if I drop
• 10:22
  Speaker 2: out and these people boycott the election, it's going to
• 10:24
  Speaker 2: hurt every other candidate that's running for office. So I said,
• 10:27
  Speaker 2: you know what, I'd rather stay in and sacrifice myself
• 10:30
  Speaker 2: and lose and help these other individuals than for me
• 10:32
  Speaker 2: to drop out and hurt everybody on the ticket. So,
• 10:34
  Speaker 2: you know, I said, listen, whatever happens, happens. I'm going
• 10:37
  Speaker 2: to stay in this thing.
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: How did you know, though? I mean, I know you
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: got discernment, but what made you say, I can do this,
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: even though everything is saying I can't?
• 10:45
  Speaker 2: Well, I'm a God-fearing man. You know, I'm a deacon
• 10:47
  Speaker 2: in my church. Shout out to St. John Baptist, Hopkins,
• 10:49
  Speaker 2: South Carolina pastor, Samuel Wade. And I truly believe that
• 10:53
  Speaker 2: what God has for me is for me. You know,
• 10:56
  Speaker 2: the same thing happened to me when I ran for
• 10:58
  Speaker 2: House of Representatives back in 2020. They said I was
• 11:00
  Speaker 2: too young, said I was too inexperienced. They said I
• 11:03
  Speaker 2: need to wait my turn. And they said I was
• 11:04
  Speaker 2: too black. said it was never gonna happen. But I
• 11:06
  Speaker 2: ran anyways, and a lot of the establishment came out
• 11:09
  Speaker 2: against me, senators, representatives, sheriff, every school board, everybody came
• 11:13
  Speaker 2: out against me. But I went ahead and ran anyways,
• 11:15
  Speaker 2: and then I ended up getting 76% of the vote
• 11:17
  Speaker 2: to become the first black and the youngest to represent
• 11:19
  Speaker 2: my district. So I've been in this position before, you know,
• 11:23
  Speaker 2: where people count you out. I mean, y'all heard my
• 11:25
  Speaker 2: last story, but I've been homeless, bro. You know, I mean,
• 11:28
  Speaker 2: I've been homeless, you know, going through these different types
• 11:30
  Speaker 2: of situations. If I've been able to overcome all that,
• 11:32
  Speaker 2: I can definitely overcome this.
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: Absolutely. I want to talk to you about data centers too, right?
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: Because I saw you say how you're not sure what
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: type of job growth they're going to create. You're not
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: sure what they're going to do to the environment, right?
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: How do you protect South Carolina's resources without shutting the
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: state out of the economic opportunity that data centers are
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: going to bring? Yeah.
• 11:53
  Speaker 2: So one of the things I've already done was I
• 11:55
  Speaker 2: introduced a joint resolution to put a moratorium on data
• 11:59
  Speaker 2: centers in South Carolina until the General Assembly actually puts
• 12:03
  Speaker 2: guardrails in place for these data centers. I mean, one
• 12:06
  Speaker 2: data center situation that happened in Spartanburg, right? So they
• 12:09
  Speaker 2: had an estimate for the amount of water they were
• 12:11
  Speaker 2: going to use, and then after it got built and constructed,
• 12:14
  Speaker 2: all of a sudden now they're using 1.6 million gallons
• 12:17
  Speaker 2: of water a day.
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: Yeah, a day.
• 12:21
  Speaker 4: But can you just break down, because a lot of
• 12:23
  Speaker 4: people might not know what data centers are and how
• 12:25
  Speaker 4: it can hurt the community and environment, right?
• 12:28
  Speaker 3: People just might not know.
• 12:29
  Speaker 4: So explain why, you know, of course the waters need
• 12:30
  Speaker 4: to cool everything down, but explain the water, the electricity
• 12:33
  Speaker 4: and why it would be a problem to be in
• 12:34
  Speaker 4: certain areas without the actual community getting some type of
• 12:37
  Speaker 4: access or something from it.
• 12:38
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 12:39
  Speaker 2: So these data centers that, you know, it's, it's for
• 12:41
  Speaker 2: like things like meta and Google, those things that they
• 12:43
  Speaker 2: use to secure your data, like to use your data.
• 12:45
  Speaker 2: It's like those big, it's like a big old USB, uh,
• 12:49
  Speaker 2: memory card. Right. So, and they use it, utilize that.
• 12:51
  Speaker 2: So all of us are essentially using these data centers
• 12:53
  Speaker 2: right now to do these things. But the one thing
• 12:55
  Speaker 2: that I want us to understand is that America has
• 12:59
  Speaker 2: more data centers in it than the rest of the
• 13:01
  Speaker 2: world has combined. So when they keep telling you that
• 13:04
  Speaker 2: it's a race to these data centers or it's a
• 13:07
  Speaker 2: race to this, we've already won the race. The race
• 13:09
  Speaker 2: is over with, right? So we've already got it. So
• 13:11
  Speaker 2: they're using the water to cool it off. They're trying
• 13:14
  Speaker 2: to come up with new technologies to where they don't
• 13:16
  Speaker 2: have to use so much water. But it does drop
• 13:18
  Speaker 2: your utility costs.
• 13:20
  Speaker 3: Why does it drop the utility costs up?
• 13:22
  Speaker 2: Because they're tying into the grid. So when they're tying
• 13:25
  Speaker 2: to the grid, it's using up the energy. Just like
• 13:28
  Speaker 2: in Christmas time. Y'all know in Christmas time, when everybody
• 13:30
  Speaker 2: got lights go up, your utility bills goes up. Same concept.
• 13:34
  Speaker 2: So we need to be able to, I've been saying, B-Y-O-E.
• 13:38
  Speaker 2: bring your own energy. If you come to South Carolina,
• 13:41
  Speaker 2: bring your own energy, bring your own resources. It should
• 13:43
  Speaker 2: be a net zero for all South Carolinians. They should
• 13:45
  Speaker 2: not have to deal with, you know, rising costs and
• 13:48
  Speaker 2: utilizing their water and all these things. If you come here, fine,
• 13:50
  Speaker 2: come here, but you ain't going to be making my
• 13:53
  Speaker 2: quality of life worse because you want to come here
• 13:55
  Speaker 2: and make your billions of dollars.
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: You just taught me something. I mean, I never thought
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: about it, but yeah, we make up 40% of the
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: global total of data centers. Yeah. 5,000 data centers in America.
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: It's not even... a thousand anywhere.
• 14:07
  Speaker 2: That's what I'm saying. It's not even close.
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: That's crazy.
• 14:09
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's not even close. Yeah, so we won the
• 14:11
  Speaker 2: race and they keep saying, oh, we got to do it.
• 14:13
  Speaker 2: We got to do it. Man, we got more than everywhere.
• 14:15
  Speaker 2: You know, so we got to really consider that.
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: What would a data center company have to guarantee South
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: Carolina for you to like fully support?
• 14:21
  Speaker 2: A net zero. Net zero, and it has to have
• 14:24
  Speaker 2: the community support. What I've said is that if the
• 14:27
  Speaker 2: majority of a community does not want a data center,
• 14:29
  Speaker 2: that community should not be forced to have a data center.
• 14:33
  Speaker 2: Because what happened to we the people, right? It's we
• 14:36
  Speaker 2: the people should be controlling this government. We the people
• 14:38
  Speaker 2: are designing our communities. That should be we the people.
• 14:41
  Speaker 2: So if we the people say no, then it should
• 14:42
  Speaker 2: be no. And it should also be coupled with a
• 14:45
  Speaker 2: net zero, right? So it should not... Meaning it should
• 14:49
  Speaker 2: not affect the quality of life for anybody in which
• 14:51
  Speaker 2: that data center is going to be built. So it
• 14:53
  Speaker 2: should not drive up my power bills. It should not
• 14:56
  Speaker 2: disrupt my sleeping patterns because they do make noise. It
• 14:59
  Speaker 2: should not be able to utilize all my water and
• 15:02
  Speaker 2: all those different things and make my water quality less usable.
• 15:07
  Speaker 2: It should be something where you should not even know
• 15:10
  Speaker 2: that it is there in your community unless you see
• 15:12
  Speaker 2: it as a building.
• 15:13
  Speaker 4: I said something earlier that I thought was, I think
• 15:15
  Speaker 4: they should do it, and so did the mayor of
• 15:17
  Speaker 4: Gary and Aaron. He basically said, yeah, you can have
• 15:21
  Speaker 4: it there, but you should take care of all electricity
• 15:22
  Speaker 4: in that community. You should take care of water bills
• 15:24
  Speaker 4: and that electricity. Everything that people would have to pay,
• 15:27
  Speaker 4: they make billions. They should be able to cover that.
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: And local hiring. And I think that it should be
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: some type of revenue sharing going on.
• 15:34
  Speaker 2: As much money is coming in there?
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: Absolutely, man.
• 15:37
  Speaker 2: I mean, they are making billions of dollars off this stuff.
• 15:41
  Speaker 2: And the thing is, y'all know I'm good friends with
• 15:43
  Speaker 2: Andrew Yang. And these are some of the things that
• 15:46
  Speaker 2: he was talking about way back in 2018. He was
• 15:48
  Speaker 2: saying the same thing about what was about to happen.
• 15:51
  Speaker 2: And we should get some money for the data that
• 15:53
  Speaker 2: they're using from us. I mean, they're literally taking all
• 15:55
  Speaker 2: of our data and selling it to other people and
• 15:57
  Speaker 2: people are getting rich off of our data. Wow.
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: That's right. Infrastructure investment. They should be investing in different
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: things in the community.
• 16:03
  Speaker 2: We shouldn't have a single pothole.
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: Are you serious about the roads? I'm dancing, man.
• 16:08
  Speaker 2: Man, I done bit my rims, knocked my car out
• 16:12
  Speaker 2: of alignment, you know. I'm just like, knocked the Mario
• 16:15
  Speaker 2: coins out of my car, man. And I'm just like, Jesus.
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: And you a car guy.
• 16:18
  Speaker 3: Yeah, man.
• 16:19
  Speaker 2: You know, yeah. And my car is almost ready too, man.
• 16:22
  Speaker 2: The Corvette. The Corvette is almost ready. It's almost ready, man.
• 16:25
  Speaker 4: I'm going to try to set out. I think it's
• 16:27
  Speaker 4: time that we do. I really want to do a
• 16:28
  Speaker 4: car show in the Carolinas, man.
• 16:30
  Speaker 2: South Carolina.
• 16:31
  Speaker 4: I really think that they show so much support, man.
• 16:35
  Speaker 3: They book me all the time and they always ask.
• 16:37
  Speaker 2: When are you going to bring it down?
• 16:38
  Speaker 4: It's a huge car town and I just think it'd
• 16:40
  Speaker 4: be dope just to bring that element.
• 16:42
  Speaker 3: Let's do it, bro.
• 16:44
  Speaker 2: Hit me up, man. I'll bring the Corvette out there, man.
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: I want to ask you too, man. If a young
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: person growing up in rural South Carolina, like where I'm from,
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: where you from too, and they ask you why should
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: you know, they build their future in South Carolina instead
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: of leaving for Atlanta or Charlotte or somewhere else, what
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: would you tell them?
• 17:03
  Speaker 2: That right now, South Carolina is essentially a blank slate, right?
• 17:06
  Speaker 2: So nobody has really invested in young people and it's
• 17:08
  Speaker 2: still a majority rule in South Carolina. But we've got,
• 17:12
  Speaker 2: so it's small enough to where you can know enough people,
• 17:15
  Speaker 2: but it's large enough to where we can provide opportunities.
• 17:18
  Speaker 2: And with these young people, because it's a blank slate,
• 17:20
  Speaker 2: it's like if we want to go in the direction
• 17:22
  Speaker 2: of manufacturing, we can. If we want to go in
• 17:25
  Speaker 2: the direction of technology, we can. If we want to
• 17:28
  Speaker 2: go in the direction of, you know, environment, we can.
• 17:31
  Speaker 2: We've got everything that we need in South Carolina. It
• 17:33
  Speaker 2: just needs young people to help direct that vision for
• 17:36
  Speaker 2: this new South Carolina. And that's exactly why I've been
• 17:38
  Speaker 2: saying I'm going to create that council of young people
• 17:41
  Speaker 2: so they can say, hey, listen, this is where we
• 17:42
  Speaker 2: want to go. I think we need more young people
• 17:44
  Speaker 2: involved in the civic process and providing their ideas and
• 17:48
  Speaker 2: their thoughts and their visions on how they want to
• 17:50
  Speaker 2: see this new South Carolina. If not, they're going to
• 17:53
  Speaker 2: continue to say we're leaving South Carolina. They're going to
• 17:56
  Speaker 2: continue to say, you know, we don't like it here
• 17:58
  Speaker 2: or we're looking for something different. I need to involve
• 18:00
  Speaker 2: them in it.
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: It's going to be interesting. I mean, there was a
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: record-breaking turnout for early voting in South Carolina. I think
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: they said they doubled with the last.
• 18:07
  Speaker 2: Yeah, we're at 191,000 votes right now.
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: What do you think that means? What is early voting usually?
• 18:14
  Speaker 2: It means they're coming to vote for me. Hey, that's
• 18:19
  Speaker 2: what it means. They're coming to vote for me right now, man.
• 18:22
  Speaker 2: So every polling site I've been going to, man, I've
• 18:25
  Speaker 2: been meeting these people. And everybody in line, they're like,
• 18:28
  Speaker 2: I don't know nobody else on my ballot, but I
• 18:30
  Speaker 2: know you. And they're like, I'm coming to vote for you.
• 18:32
  Speaker 2: And it's a lot of 18-year-olds, 19-year-olds, 20-year-olds. I mean,
• 18:35
  Speaker 2: they recognize me out in the street. And they're like, man,
• 18:37
  Speaker 2: thank you, man, just for representing. I just thank you
• 18:40
  Speaker 2: for being and standing up here and saying things when
• 18:43
  Speaker 2: other people wouldn't say them. So them young people, they're
• 18:46
  Speaker 2: coming out to vote for me, man.
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: Well, tell them where to go to donate to your
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: campaign and.
• 18:49
  Speaker 2: All that good stuff. Well, I appreciate that, bro. So
• 18:52
  Speaker 2: go on to johnson4sc. com. You can click on the Donate button.
• 18:56
  Speaker 2: You can click on the Volunteer button. Stop by one
• 18:59
  Speaker 2: of your Democratic Party headquarters to get some signs if
• 19:03
  Speaker 2: you wanted some signs and everything. But if you have
• 19:06
  Speaker 2: not voted, y'all, you need to get out there to vote.
• 19:09
  Speaker 2: We've got until October 31st for early voting. And then,
• 19:13
  Speaker 2: of course, Election Day is on November 3rd. But I
• 19:15
  Speaker 2: don't want us waiting until November 3rd. Get out there
• 19:18
  Speaker 2: and vote right now. Let's get this thing over with,
• 19:20
  Speaker 2: and let's start planning on how we're going to build
• 19:22
  Speaker 2: this new South Carolina.
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: That's right. You got to make your rounds this weekend, too.
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: State homecoming.
• 19:25
  Speaker 2: Yeah, you know I'll be out there. You going to
• 19:26
  Speaker 2: be out there?
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: I'm going to be there.
• 19:27
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I'll be out there. I'm going to have my
• 19:29
  Speaker 2: good Phi Beta Sigma shirt on.
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: Okay. Dr.
• 19:33
  Speaker 3: Jermaine Johnson, we appreciate you for joining us, man.
• 19:35
  Speaker 4: Get out there and vote. November 3rd is the day,
• 19:37
  Speaker 4: but like he said... Get out there early. Before October 30th,
• 19:40
  Speaker 4: if you could get your votes in beforehand. And we
• 19:42
  Speaker 4: appreciate you for joining us, brother.
• 19:43
  Speaker 2: I appreciate y'all.
• 19:44
  Speaker 3: It's The Breakfast Club. Good morning.