U.S. Rep. Jim Clyburn, recipient of the 2025 Electric Cooperative Outstanding Public Service Award, is an example in not just reaching across the aisle but in taking the extra step for the greater good.
Photo by Erin P. Nichols
One of my favorite political idioms is also one I wish we put into practice more often: “reaching across the aisle.”
The phrase nods to the physical layout of legislative chambers, including the U.S. Congress, where Republicans and Democrats are traditionally seated across from each other.
“Reaching across the aisle” means working with members of the opposing party to accomplish something that benefits everyone. Unfortunately, we tend to see less reaching and more finger-pointing in today’s increasingly polarized politics.
Of all the hundreds of local officials, state lawmakers and members of Congress I’ve had the opportunity to work with, U.S. Rep. Jim Clyburn, the subject of this issue’s cover story, is undoubtedly among the best at reaching across the aisle.
In our recent conversation, Clyburn shared his own take on bipartisanship. He commits: “If there are five steps between us, I want to take three of them.”
Clyburn picked up that wisdom from his minister father, who once cast the deciding vote for his own challenger in a tightly contested board of elders election because he wanted to maintain harmony among his church members.
Since Clyburn entered Congress in 1993, taking those three steps—or going just a little further than the middle to meet his collaborators—has proved an effective means of serving his people. By his people, I don’t mean just those who vote Democratic or who live in the 6th Congressional District. Clyburn is most interested in advocating for people in rural communities—people who work hard to pay their bills and educate their children. His people aren’t R’s and D’s but people in need of what they deserve—living wages, a good education and affordable access to reliable services such as electricity and high-speed internet.
Clyburn’s persistent efforts and effective partnerships as a civil rights activist, South Carolina’s Human Affairs Commissioner and a congressman for more than three decades have helped fill those needs.
When he joined Gov. John West’s staff in 1971, he was the first nonwhite adviser to a South Carolina governor since Reconstruction. Clyburn helped the administration address the poor conditions in which many South Carolinians lived, especially in rural communities. One of their initiatives was the “Privy Project,” which provided modular bathrooms to homes without indoor plumbing. Clyburn worked closely with electric cooperatives to identify the homes most in need of this service.
It would not be the last time Clyburn had the backs of rural electric cooperative members.
In the late 2000s, when Congress debated climate policies that threatened to drastically increase the price of electricity for co-op members, Clyburn fought for co-op members’ interests in Washington, D.C.
Not long afterward, I worked with Clyburn to develop a program that would allow homeowners and businesses to finance energy efficiency upgrades through low-interest loans. It would save consumers money by lowering their power bills, improve their quality of life with properly heated and cooled homes, and reduce carbon emissions by minimizing energy consumption. Clyburn championed what became the Rural Energy Savings Program act, which passed in 2014 with bipartisan support and has helped hundreds of cooperative members across South Carolina and thousands across the nation.
Well before COVID-19, Clyburn listened to South Carolina’s co-ops about the need for high-speed internet access in rural areas, and he helped secure federal funding for rural broadband expansion. In January 2021, at a new high in our nation’s political divisiveness, Clyburn received a call from South Carolina’s Republican governor, Henry McMaster. Gov. McMaster, who also puts the people of his state above partisan politics, told Clyburn he would propose $30 million to fund “your broadband program” in his upcoming State of the State address. The McMaster-Clyburn collaboration has helped make South Carolina a national model for broadband expansion.
As the need to improve the quality of life for all South Carolinians remains and the divisions between our political parties seem to widen, I’m positive that pointing and blaming do us more harm than good.
I remain hopeful that we will get back to reaching across the aisle. And I’m grateful to Clyburn for showing us how to take tangible steps toward bridging that divide.