How Facebook Helped Elect South Carolina’s First Gay Public Official

Congratulations are in order for Nick Shalosky, a 21-year-old openly gay College of Charleston student who has become South Carolina’s first gay public official. Shalosky won a seat on the Charleston County District 20 Constituent School Board after noticing that no one had filed for the seat. As he notes in a guest post on the Bilerico Project, he was able to engineer a write-in campaign using Facebook. Without spending any money on his campaign, he won the election and added his name to a list of pioneering LGBT candidates. His use of Facebook underscores the value of social media in finding supporters no matter what the political landscape.