SCGOP Silver Elephant Dinner to feature 2012 Republican candidate forum

Columbia, SC – April 21, 2011 – South Carolina Republican Party Chairman Karen Floyd today announced that this year’s 44th Annual Silver Elephant Banquet will
feature a first-ever Presidential Forum consisting of a number of 2012 presidential candidates.

Traditionally, the Silver Elephant has hosted a single keynote speaker. This year, a number of potential 2012 candidates are expected to attend, and each will be given an opportunity to lay out their vision for America before the SCGOP’s premiere annual gathering.

“We are incredibly excited about our field of candidates who are poised to take back the White House in 2012,” Floyd said. “Though this is certainly a non-traditional approach to our banquet, we thought this to be a very fitting way to introduce our top donors and top activists to our field of contenders.”

Floyd noted that the first week in May would serve as the official kickoff to South Carolina’s First-in-the-South nominating season, with a nationally televised SCGOP-Fox News debate to be held in Greenville on May 5, the Silver Elephant Banquet to be held in Columbia on May 6, and the state Convention to be held in Columbia on May 7.

South Carolina has played an auspicious role in the presidential nominating process, as no candidate has won the GOP nomination without winning our state’s
First-in-the-South contest. That record holds true all the way back to the South Carolina primary’s inception in 1980.

Floyd said that specific participants would be announced soon. Invitations to speak at the Silver Elephant are being extended to those candidates who participate in the May 5 debate.

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