SC legislator charged with distributing videos of child sexual abuse resigns from jail
by Skylar Laird, SC Daily Gazette
August 11, 2025
COLUMBIA — Rep. RJ May has resigned his House seat two months after his arrest on charges of distributing child sexual abuse material, according to a letter the House Speaker’s Office received Monday.
The West Columbia Republican, who remains in jail without bond, has been suspended from the House without pay since his June arrest, as is required by state law for any public official indicted on a felony. He was also the subject of a House Ethics Commission investigation, which would have been the first step toward expelling him from the House.
“I have decided that it is in the best interest of my family and constituents to resign immediately from the South Carolina House of Representatives,” May wrote in his letter, dated Thursday. “Please accept this letter as my formal resignation from the South Carolina House of Representatives.”
“It has been an honor to serve the people of District 88,” the three-sentence letter concluded.
As required by law, the election for May’s seat is expected to take place Dec. 23, the month before the legislative session begins. Filing would open Aug. 29, with a primary election taking place Oct. 21, according to the State Election Commission.
The office of House Speaker Murrell Smith must still officially set the dates.
House Majority Leader Davey Hiott, R-Pickens, said he’s unsure whether the ethics complaint he had filed against May will end with May’s resignation, but he hopes it will expand to include May’s consulting work.
As owner of Ivory Tusk Consulting, May ran campaigns for GOP candidates who aligned with his own hardline conservatism. Payments from some of those clients, including members of the Freedom Caucus, continued until at least May, according to public campaign disclosures.
“I hope members of the House Freedom Caucus don’t think this will end this investigation,” Hiott said in a statement.
Rep. Jordan Pace, a Goose Creek Republican and Freedom Caucus chairman, said he welcomed May’s resignation and had hoped the House would have already expelled him. May was a founding member of the ultra-conservative Freedom Caucus and acted as its de facto spokesman until the investigation into him became public.
“Our hearts are with his victims and his innocent family, and we pray for swift justice as this ugly chapter in the South Carolina House of Representatives comes to a close,” the Freedom Caucus said in a statement.
Oklahoma man charged with receiving child sexual abuse material from Rep. RJ May
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The investigation into May began in April 2024, when social messaging app Kik notified a federal nonprofit that videos involving child sexual abuse had been sent from an account called “joebidennnn69.”
Federal investigators tracked the account, which had saved 220 different videos and images depicting child sexual abuse, to May’s house and cellphone, prosecutors said during a June detention hearing.
An attorney for May argued that someone had hacked into his accounts and targeted the 38-year-old father of two for political reasons.
During the investigation, May continued showing up to session every day, though he stayed quiet instead of participating in debates. He continued to vote alongside the Freedom Caucus, though he hadn’t been a member since news broke that investigators had seized his computers in August.
May is scheduled to appear in federal court Aug. 20 for a pre-trial hearing. Jury selection for his trial is scheduled to begin Sept. 10, according to court filings. But his attorney asked Monday for a delay.
May was re-elected last year without opposition.
Brian Duncan, a Republican who launched a write-in campaign last October — after early voting had already begun — will run to fill the seat, he said in a statement Monday. It’s unclear how many votes Duncan received on November ballots, since votes for candidates written in aren’t reported by name on the state Election Commission’s online results.
However, there were 1,104 write-in votes for the Lexington County seat, compared to 13,020 cast for May.
Duncan, who owns a security company called Security Pro, ran for the same seat during the 2020 primary election, placing fourth among five candidates.
SC Daily Gazette is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. SC Daily Gazette maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Seanna Adcox for questions: info@scdailygazette.com.
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