Cal Forrest
Cal Forrest (Republican Party) is a member of the South Carolina House of Representatives, representing District 39. He assumed office on November 14, 2016. His current term ends on November 9, 2026.
Forrest (Republican Party) is running for re-election to the South Carolina House of Representatives to represent District 39. He declared candidacy for the Republican primary scheduled on June 9, 2026.[source]
Committee assignments
2025-2026
Forrest was assigned to the following committees:
2023-2024
Forrest was assigned to the following committees:
- Agriculture, Natural Resources and Environmental Affairs Committee
- House Rules Committee, Vice Chair
2021-2022
Forrest was assigned to the following committees:
- House Rules Committee, Vice chairman
- Agriculture, Natural Resources and Environmental Affairs Committee
2019-2020
Forrest was assigned to the following committees:
2017 legislative session
At the beginning of the 2017 legislative session, this legislator served on the following committees:
| South Carolina committee assignments, 2017 |
|---|
| • Agriculture, Natural Resources, and Environmental Affairs |
Sponsored legislation
The following table lists bills this person sponsored as a legislator, according to BillTrack50 and sorted by action history. Bills are sorted by the date of their last action. The following list may not be comprehensive. To see all bills this legislator sponsored, click on the legislator's name in the title of the table.
Elections
2026
See also: South Carolina House of Representatives elections, 2026
General election
The primary will occur on June 9, 2026. The general election will occur on November 3, 2026. General election candidates will be added here following the primary.
Republican primary
Republican primary for South Carolina House of Representatives District 39
Incumbent Cal Forrest (R), Katie Hall (R), and Fred Taylor (R) are running in the Republican primary for South Carolina House of Representatives District 39 on June 9, 2026.
Candidate | ||
 | Cal Forrest | |
 | Katie Hall | |
| Fred Taylor | ||
| ||||
 = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
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Endorsements
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2024
See also: South Carolina House of Representatives elections, 2024
General election
General election for South Carolina House of Representatives District 39
Incumbent Cal Forrest won election in the general election for South Carolina House of Representatives District 39 on November 5, 2024.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Cal Forrest (R) | 99.2 | 17,575 |
| Other/Write-in votes | 0.8 | 133 | ||
| Total votes: 17,708 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Republican primary election
Republican primary for South Carolina House of Representatives District 39
Incumbent Cal Forrest defeated Katie Hall in the Republican primary for South Carolina House of Representatives District 39 on June 11, 2024.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Cal Forrest | 81.5 | 4,242 |
| Katie Hall | 18.5 | 966 | |
| Total votes: 5,208 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
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Campaign finance
Endorsements
Forrest received the following endorsements.
- Frmr. President Donald Trump (R)
Pledges
Forrest signed the following pledges.
2022
See also: South Carolina House of Representatives elections, 2022
General election
General election for South Carolina House of Representatives District 39
Incumbent Cal Forrest won election in the general election for South Carolina House of Representatives District 39 on November 8, 2022.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Cal Forrest (R) | 99.1 | 12,385 |
| Other/Write-in votes | 0.9 | 118 | ||
| Total votes: 12,503 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Republican primary election
Republican primary for South Carolina House of Representatives District 39
Incumbent Cal Forrest defeated Katie Hall in the Republican primary for South Carolina House of Representatives District 39 on June 14, 2022.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Cal Forrest | 85.2 | 3,104 |
| Katie Hall | 14.8 | 539 | |
| Total votes: 3,643 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
2020
See also: South Carolina House of Representatives elections, 2020
General election
General election for South Carolina House of Representatives District 39
Incumbent Cal Forrest won election in the general election for South Carolina House of Representatives District 39 on November 3, 2020.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Cal Forrest (R) | 98.6 | 14,992 |
| Other/Write-in votes | 1.4 | 220 | ||
| Total votes: 15,212 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Republican primary election
The Republican primary election was canceled. Incumbent Cal Forrest advanced from the Republican primary for South Carolina House of Representatives District 39.
2018
General election
General election for South Carolina House of Representatives District 39
Incumbent Cal Forrest won election in the general election for South Carolina House of Representatives District 39 on November 6, 2018.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Cal Forrest (R) | 98.9 | 10,424 |
| Other/Write-in votes | 1.1 | 116 | ||
| Total votes: 10,540 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Republican primary election
Republican primary for South Carolina House of Representatives District 39
Incumbent Cal Forrest advanced from the Republican primary for South Carolina House of Representatives District 39 on June 12, 2018.
Candidate | ||
| ✔ | | Cal Forrest |
| ||||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
2016
Elections for the South Carolina House of Representatives took place in 2016. The primary election took place on June 14, 2016, and the general election was held on November 8, 2016. The primary runoff election was held on June 28, 2016. The candidate filing deadline was March 30, 2016.
Cal Forrest defeated Tillman Gives in the South Carolina House of Representatives District 39 general election.[1][2]
| South Carolina House of Representatives, District 39 General Election, 2016 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Vote % | Votes | |
| Republican |  Cal Forrest |
72.80% | 11,322 | |
| Democratic | Tillman Gives | 27.20% | 4,231 | |
| Total Votes | 15,553 | |||
| Source: South Carolina State Election Commission | ||||
Tillman Gives ran unopposed in the South Carolina House of Representatives District 39 Democratic primary.[3][4]
| South Carolina House of Representatives, District 39 Democratic Primary, 2016 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | |
| Democratic | Tillman Gives (unopposed) | |
Cal Forrest defeated incumbent Ralph Shealy Kennedy in the South Carolina House of Representatives District 39 Republican primary.[5][6]
| South Carolina House of Representatives, District 39 Republican Primary, 2016 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Vote % | Votes | |
| Republican | Cal Forrest |
56.83% | 2,713 | |
| Republican | Ralph Shealy Kennedy Incumbent | 43.17% | 2,061 | |
| Total Votes | 4,774 | |||
| Source: South Carolina State Election Commission | ||||
Campaign themes
2026
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Cal Forrest has not yet completed Ballotpedia's 2026 Candidate Connection survey. If you are Cal Forrest, click here to fill out Ballotpedia's 2026 Candidate Connection survey.
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2024
Cal Forrest did not complete Ballotpedia's 2024 Candidate Connection survey.
2022
Cal Forrest did not complete Ballotpedia's 2022 Candidate Connection survey.
2020
Cal Forrest did not complete Ballotpedia's 2020 Candidate Connection survey.
Campaign finance summary
Note: The finance data shown here comes from the disclosures required of candidates and parties. Depending on the election or state, this may represent only a portion of all the funds spent on their behalf. Satellite spending groups may or may not have expended funds related to the candidate or politician on whose page you are reading this disclaimer. Campaign finance data from elections may be incomplete. For elections to federal offices, complete data can be found at the FEC website. Click here for more on federal campaign finance law and here for more on state campaign finance law.
Scorecards
A scorecard evaluates a legislator’s voting record. Its purpose is to inform voters about the legislator’s political positions. Because scorecards have varying purposes and methodologies, each report should be considered on its own merits. For example, an advocacy group’s scorecard may assess a legislator’s voting record on one issue while a state newspaper’s scorecard may evaluate the voting record in its entirety.
Ballotpedia is in the process of developing an encyclopedic list of published scorecards. Some states have a limited number of available scorecards or scorecards produced only by select groups. It is Ballotpedia’s goal to incorporate all available scorecards regardless of ideology or number.
Click here for an overview of legislative scorecards in all 50 states. To contribute to the list of scorecards, email suggestions to editor@ballotpedia.org.
Below you can find the scorecards found for the South Carolina State Legislature in 2025.
- Americans for Prosperity - South Carolina — Legislators are scored on their votes on bills related to economic issues.
- The Freedom Index — Legislators are scored on their adherence to the limited government principles of the U.S. Constitution.
Below you can find the scorecards found for the South Carolina State Legislature in 2024.
- Americans for Prosperity - South Carolina — Legislators are scored on their votes on bills related to economic issues.
- Club for Growth Foundation — Legislators are scored on their votes on bills related to economic issues.
- Conservation Voters of South Carolina — Legislators are scored on their votes on bills related to environmental and conservation issues.
- National Federation of Independent Business — Legislators are scored on their votes on bills related to business issues.
Below you can find the scorecards found for the South Carolina State Legislature in 2023.
- Americans for Prosperity - South Carolina — Legislators are scored on their votes on bills related to economic issues.
- Conservation Voters of South Carolina — Legislators are scored on their votes on bills related to environmental and conservation issues.
- The American Conservative Union — Legislators are scored on their votes on conservative issues.
- The Institute for Legislative Analysis — Legislators are scored on their adherence to the limited government principles of the U.S. Constitution.
Below you can find the scorecards found for the South Carolina State Legislature in 2022.
- Americans for Prosperity - South Carolina — Legislators are scored on their votes on bills related to economic issues.
- Conservation Voters of South Carolina — Legislators are scored on their votes on bills related to environmental and conservation issues.
- National Federation of Independent Business — Legislators are scored on their votes on bills related to business issues.
Below you can find the scorecards found for the South Carolina State Legislature in 2021.
- Americans for Prosperity - South Carolina — Legislators are scored on their votes on bills related to economic issues.
- Conservation Voters of South Carolina — Legislators are scored on their votes on bills related to environmental and conservation issues.
- The American Conservative Union — Legislators are scored on their votes on conservative issues.
Below you can find the scorecards found for the South Carolina State Legislature in 2020.
- Conservation Voters of South Carolina — Legislators are scored on their votes on bills related to environmental and conservation issues.
- The American Conservative Union — Legislators are scored on their votes on conservative issues.
Below you can find the scorecards found for the South Carolina State Legislature in 2019.
- Club for Growth Foundation — Legislators are scored on their votes on bills supported or opposed by the organization.
- The American Conservative Union — Legislators are scored on their votes on conservative issues.
Below you can find the scorecards found for the South Carolina State Legislature in 2018.
- Club for Growth Foundation — Legislators are scored on their votes on bills supported or opposed by the organization.
- Conservation Voters of South Carolina — Legislators are scored on their votes on bills related to environmental and conservation issues.
- South Carolina Chamber of Commerce — Legislators are scored on business issues.
- The American Conservative Union — Legislators are scored on their votes on conservative issues.
Below you can find the scorecards found for the South Carolina State Legislature in 2017.
- Club for Growth Foundation — Legislators are scored on their votes on bills supported or opposed by the organization.
- Conservation Voters of South Carolina — Legislators are scored on their votes on bills related to environmental and conservation issues.
- South Carolina Chamber of Commerce — Legislators are scored on business issues.
- The American Conservative Union — Legislators are scored on their votes on conservative issues.
See also
2026 Elections
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ South Carolina State Election Commission, "Candidate listing for the 11/8/2016 statewide general election," accessed August 26, 2016
- ↑ South Carolina State Election Commission, "2016 Statewide General Election," accessed November 28, 2016
- ↑ South Carolina Election Commission, "Candidate Tracking," accessed March 31, 2016
- ↑ South Carolina State Election Commission, "Unofficial primary election results," accessed June 14, 2016
- ↑ South Carolina Election Commission, "Candidate Tracking," accessed March 31, 2016
- ↑ South Carolina State Election Commission, "Unofficial primary election results," accessed June 14, 2016
| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by - |
South Carolina House of Representatives District 39 2016-Present |
Succeeded by - |
