Why It Matters: Representative Bauer stepping into the leadership role as a Caucus Chair of the South Carolina Legislative Sportsmen’s Caucus (Caucus) is important for the Caucus’s continued strength, especially for the representation of South Carolina’s sportswomen. The Palmetto State provides hunters and anglers with a wide array of sporting opportunities in a diversity of landscapes, and the bicameral and bipartisan Caucus serves on the front lines to protect and promote outdoor sporting traditions for South Carolinians.
Highlights:
- Recently, Representative Heather Bauer accepted the leadership position as Co-Chair of the bipartisan South Carolina Legislative Sportsmen’s Caucus (Caucus).
- Representative Bauer joins Representative Bobby Cox, Senator Steven Goldfinch, and Senator Thomas McElveen on the Caucus leadership bench.
- Representative Bauer has already begun making strides for South Carolina’s sporting community by sponsoring House Bill 3868 that created “Women in Hunting and Fishing Awareness Day” in the Palmetto State.
Representative Bauer hit the ground running in her first weeks in her new Caucus leadership position. As the primary sponsor of HB 3868, which was signed into law by Governor Sportsmen’s Caucus Member Governor McMaster on May 26, it designates the third Saturday in November as “Women in Hunting and Fishing Awareness Day” in South Carolina. This is an exciting step forward for South Carolina’s sportswomen and for hunter Recruitment, Retention, and Reactivation (R3) efforts in the state, as this bill increases awareness for female engagement in outdoor sporting activities.
In the past year, the Caucus led on several policy wins for sportsmen in the Palmetto State, most notably working with the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources to open public lands for Sunday hunting for the first time in the state’s history. Additionally, the Caucus led an effort to find reasonable solutions to protect North Atlantic right whales while not harming the state’s coastal fishing culture and economy.
The Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation thanks former Caucus Co-Chair Representative Roger Kirby for his service to the Caucus and looks forward to continuing to work with Representative Bauer in her new role.
