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430+ Measles Cases. Zero Leadership.

Our Children Are Paying the Price

Brandon Brown for SC Jan 19

South Carolina is in the middle of a public health crisis that should never have happened.

More than 430 people in our state have now been diagnosed with measles, a disease the United States once declared eliminated. Schools are closing classrooms, families are scrambling to protect their children, and communities are left wondering how something so preventable spiraled so quickly out of control.

Measles is not a harmless childhood illness. It is one of the most contagious viruses on the planet. It can cause pneumonia, brain swelling, permanent complications, and in severe cases, death. And it spreads fastest among children, especially those too young to be vaccinated or whose protection depends on the people around them doing the right thing.

This Crisis Has a Name — and It’s Negligence

We also need to be honest about why this outbreak is happening.

Measles does not come roaring back because of chance. It comes back when trust in vaccines is deliberately undermined when people with power choose ego, ideology, or notoriety over evidence and responsibility.

And no one bears more responsibility for that erosion of trust than Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

For years, RFK Jr. has used his platform to sow doubt about childhood vaccines, repeating claims that have been debunked over and over again by every credible medical institution in the world. He has wrapped misinformation in the language of “concern” and “choice,” but the results are devastatingly clear: lower vaccination rates, fractured public trust, and children left vulnerable to deadly disease.

This is not a matter of free speech. This is a matter of consequence.

When someone who positions himself as a public health authority spreads doubt about vaccines, families listen. When families listen, fewer children get vaccinated. And when fewer children get vaccinated, measles spreads. That is the chain of events now unfolding in South Carolina.

Calling this a “mistake” would be generous. It is negligence. That is why Robert F. Kennedy Jr. deserves to be fired.

What We Must Do Now

We can still stop this outbreak from getting worse, but only if we act decisively and stop pretending that leadership failures don’t have consequences.

That means expanding vaccination access across South Carolina. It means strengthening public education rooted in medical facts, not internet conspiracies.
It means closing loopholes that allow misinformation to override community safety.
And it means demanding accountability from leaders who have failed to protect public health.

Most of all, it means recommitting to a simple, non-negotiable principle: our children come first.

Our children are not collateral damage in an ideological fight. They are not test cases. They are not bargaining chips in a culture war.

As an uncle and a godfather, I refuse to accept a world where children are exposed to a dangerous, preventable disease because adults in power were too reckless, too cowardly, or too politically convenient to do their jobs. Measles is preventable. The science is settled. And the cost of inaction is written on the faces of worried parents and vulnerable children across our state.

And that brings us to Lindsey Graham.

South Carolina’s senior U.S. Senator has been completely silent while measles spreads through our communities. No warning to parents. No urgency. No demand for accountability from federal health leaders who helped fuel vaccine distrust. Lindsey Graham never misses a camera when he wants to defend Donald Trump or lecture the country about “family values,” but when South Carolina’s children are at risk, he vanishes.

That silence is not accidental. It is a choice.

A choice to protect political allies instead of our children.
A choice to serve power instead of the people.
A choice to say nothing while families pay the price.

South Carolina does not need a senator who hides when leadership is required. We need one who will stand up for science, tell the truth, and fight like hell to keep our children safe.

Our children deserve better than silence.
And we all deserve better than Lindsey Graham.

Brandon Brown
U.S. Senate Candidate, South Carolina

This campaign doesn’t take corporate PAC money. It’s powered by people like you who still believe that truth matters, fairness matters, and democracy matters. Brandon Brown is running to build a South Carolina — and an America — where justice is blind, freedom is sacred, and every voice counts.

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