'Slap in the face': SC representative protests highway honoring Trump, Charlie Kirk

by Dejon Johnson, WACH FOX 57, March 5, 2026

A South Carolina lawmaker is criticizing a House vote to name highways after conservative figures, calling it offensive to many residents.

In a statement on Thursday, Hamilton Grant said the decision by the South Carolina House of Representatives to rename a highway and bridge after Charlie Kirk and to designate a new interstate as the Donald Trump Highway was “a slap in the face to many South Carolinians, particularly in the Black community.”

Grant said lawmakers traditionally have the option to name roadways in their districts, in honor of figures who have contributed to SC positively. The proposed interstate referenced in the legislation is Interstate 73, which has long been discussed as a route connecting parts of the state to North Carolina.

State Rep. Hamilton Grant, D-Columbia, takes notes during a meeting of the Legislative Black Caucus, Tuesday, Jan. 14, 2025, in Columbia, S.C. (AP Photo/Jeffrey Collins)

Read Grant's full statement below:

Today in the South Carolina House of Representatives, this body voted to give two highways in our state the disgrace of being renamed after Charlie Kirk and to name a new interstate (I-73) the President Donald J. Trump Highway - an interstate that will likely be built by a community of people that he wants to deport. I could not hold my peace. While members have the deference to name stretches of roadways in their respective districts, this decision is a slap in the face to many South Carolinians, particularly in the Black community. South Carolina has countless sons and daughters who have paved the way by respecting and uplifting all people of this state. Those are the names we should be honoring, not race-baiting podcasters and convicted felons. How you die does not excuse how you lived. And what you say about others matters.

Grant was joined by other Black lawmakers in protest of the road renaming on Thursday.