What was billed as South Carolina's largest gathering of conservatives took place Monday evening at the Anderson Civic Center on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard in Anderson.
Third District Congressman Jeff Duncan's 10th Annual Faith & Freedom BBQ has ran since 2011 and featured a variety of Republican leaders, elected officials, and activists over the years.
South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem was the headlining speaker this year, and 106.3 alum Bob McClain was billed to introduce the speakers and open the event.
Governor Noem is frequently mentioned as a potential 2024 GOP presidential candidate.
The event itself was also packed, with what looked to be nearly 1,000 seats filled at the event's opening.
The annual fundraiser for the Congressman was on hiatus last year due to the COVID pandemic, and this year's event drew in a variety of individuals to its seats who shared their opinions on school mask mandates and the current situation in Afghanistan.
A mix of various individuals in the crowd said they liked what the Governor was currently saying and believed that parents should be the ones to decide if their children wear masks in schools or gets vaccinated.
"When it comes to vaccines, people say 'are you going to take the vaccine?' Well I took the polio vaccine, I took the smallpox vaccine. And I will trust the leadership on the vaccines," said one attendee. "But as far as mask mandates, I think that's a personal choice, just as the vaccine's a personal choice."
"I think it should be up to the parents," said another attendee from Anderson "It's their kids if they want them to mask."
Meanwhile, a smaller group said they believed local school districts should be able to decide if mask mandates are necessary.
The opinions of the crowd were much less divided in regards to the current administrations handling of the situation in Afghanistan, believing it is being handled poorly.
"As a veteran that served in Kabul, I'm completely disgusted looking at what's happening in Kabul," said a local Afghan veteran. "We worked with a lot of locals that are, just by policy of the taliban being murdered for being associated with us. And I feel that people that I worked with are dead or going to die just because they trusted us, and it hurts me on a personal level."
"I just think they should have started evacuated all the civilians first, then the people that helped us, before they pulled all the troops out," said another local attendee who said he was surprised by how quickly the taliban took control of Kabul.