Living here costs more every year.
Samuel is the Democratic candidate for State House District 99.
Cainhoy · Daniel Island · Hanahan
The party that runs Columbia is making it worse.
There is no plan.
Samuel Price is an engineer, and he has one.
Power bills
A data center should pay for its own power.
Amount Due $169
a month
Data centers could add up to2
+$96a month by 2030
on top of a typical $169 bill
I'd make data centers pay for the plants and lines they need.
Samuel Price for State House
Sources
- 1Dominion's two raises since 2024 came to about $27 on a typical $169 bill: $15 in September 2024 and $12 this spring. Live 5 News; SC Daily Gazette.
- 2NC State and Carnegie Mellon researchers: data centers could raise power bills up to 57% in some places by 2030, and as much as 29% on average. In South Carolina they are 65% to 70% of new power use. NC State, May 2026; Post and Courier.
- The Senate’s vote: SC Daily Gazette, May 5, 2025.
- 1Berkeley Electric's raise of March 1, 2025: 11% for the average member. Berkeley Electric Cooperative.
- 2NC State and Carnegie Mellon researchers: data centers could raise power bills up to 57% in some places by 2030, and as much as 29% on average. In South Carolina they are 65% to 70% of new power use. NC State, May 2026; Post and Courier.
- The Senate’s vote: SC Daily Gazette, May 5, 2025.
Last year the Senate voted to make data centers pay their own way. The House took that out.
Traffic
The fix for I-526 has no money and no start date.
2030, and still no plan.
75,200
vehicles a day in 2025, up from 68,900 in 2015
My plan is another way to get there, by ferry, bus or rail.
Every road’s count, 2015 to 2025
Replacing the Don Holt is part of a $4 billion plan with nobody named to pay for it.
SCDOT traffic counts, station 2517. The Daniel Island News, May 1, 2024.
2026 to 2030 are projections, not counts: each road’s average yearly change from 2015 to 2025, carried forward from its 2025 count.
| Road | 2015 | 2025 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| I-526 I-26 to Rivers Avenue | 77,200 | 82,400 | +7% |
| I-526 Rivers Avenue to North Rhett Avenue | 75,600 | 81,600 | +8% |
| I-526 North Rhett Avenue to Virginia Avenue | 80,500 | 89,400 | +11% |
| I-526 Virginia Avenue to Clements Ferry Road, over the Don Holt Bridge | 68,900 | 75,200 | +9% |
| I-526 Clements Ferry Road to Seven Farms Drive | 55,200 | 64,500 | +17% |
| I-526 Seven Farms Drive to Long Point Road, over the Wando bridge | 62,800 | 72,600 | +16% |
| Clements Ferry Road South of I-526 | 5,200 | 7,800 | +50% |
| Clements Ferry Road I-526 to Jack Primus Road | 25,700 | 39,600 | +54% |
| Clements Ferry Road Jack Primus Road to Cainhoy Road | 13,800 | 24,100 | +75% |
| Clements Ferry Road Cainhoy Road to Reflectance Road | 13,200 | 17,900 | +36% |
| Clements Ferry Road Reflectance Road to Highway 41 | 9,800 | 13,100 | +34% |
| Highway 41 The Wando to Clements Ferry Road | 14,800 | 18,100 | +22% |
| Cainhoy Road Clements Ferry Road to Baldwin Corner Road | 5,200 | 5,200 | 0% |
| North Rhett Avenue The county line to Yeamans Hall Road | 30,300 | 32,300 | +7% |
| North Rhett Avenue Yeamans Hall Road to North Pointe Industrial Boulevard | 25,500 | 29,700 | +16% |
| North Rhett Avenue North Pointe Industrial Boulevard to Red Bank Road | 22,200 | 30,400 | +37% |
| Murray Avenue Highland Park Road to Yeamans Hall Road | 9,500 | 12,500 | +32% |
| Murray Drive Yeamans Hall Road to the county line | 5,000 | 5,100 | +2% |
| Yeamans Hall Road The county line to North Rhett Avenue | 6,500 | 6,200 | −5% |
Corruption
You paid for the roads, the builders did not, and Columbia made sure.
$92.7 million $16.1 million $2.8 million $1 billion
$0
from a road fee on builders, since 2014
This spring there was a bill in Columbia to let a county make a subdivision wait for its road. Columbia let it die.
Sources
- S. 227 and H. 4050, S.C. General Assembly
- The session ended May 14, 2026
AI
I engineer software for a living. I know where it breaks. I know how to build it better.
About SamuelFlock cameras log every car that passes.
The Berkeley County sheriff owns 52 of them. Any officer with a login can look up where a car has been. The system asks for one thing first.
Search
“”
Accepted.
1 of 3
This summer an Upstate officer was fired for using them 166 times to track an ex.
One mark is one search. Each time a reason was given and accepted: warrant check, traffic infraction, welfare check.
Last year an Indiana officer searched more than 19,000 cameras, in 1,558 cities and towns, for one car. No warrant needed.
One mark is one city or town. The reason on Flock’s record of the search: “LMAO.”
Last winter a Houston-area police intelligence center told officers to cover their tracks.
“Be as vague as permissible.”
So a public records request would not show why they searched.
Catching car thieves is not a valid reason to give away your daily movements to a private company.
I’d ban them.
Sources
- The Upstate officer: WSPA, August 24, 2026.
- The Indiana officer: 404 Media and the Electronic Frontier Foundation, September 14, 2026.
- The warning to police: 404 Media, January 27, 2026.
- The sheriff’s cameras: ABC News 4, September 2, 2026.
- The reason the system asks for: Flock Safety, December 10, 2025.
- Volunteers have mapped 14 plate readers inside District 99 (DeFlock, October 10, 2026).
