Nelson Faerber, ex-Clemson player running for Secretary of State, fumbles political start

Former Clemson University football player Nelson Faerber has fumbled the start of his first political campaign.

In a Facebook post last month, the 32-year-old Greenville resident said he voted in 2004 for President George W. Bush. And at a forum hosted by the Greenville tea party last week, the Republican candidate for South Carolina Secretary of State said that he voted for U.S. Sen. John McCain in the 2008 presidential election.

Faerber is now acknowledging that he never voted in either of those elections.

"I was wrong," he said in an interview this week. "I didn't intend to deceive anybody.

"We are all human. We all make mistakes. I accepted responsibility for that, which is something we should see more of in politics."

One of Faerber's political rivals questioned his fitness for an office that certifies all of the state's elections.

"It is disappointing for someone to embellish their record and not be truthful to the voters," said Rep. Joshua Putnam, a Republican from Piedmont. "We've been through a lot here with politicians saying whatever it took to get elected."

Putnam, Faerber and Upstate political consultant Kerry Wood are challenging incumbent Secretary of State Mark Hammond in the June 12 GOP primary. Democrat Melvin Whittenburg of Columbia also is seeking the post.

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Faerber said he recalled supporting Bush in 2004 and that he had a bumper sticker for the president on his pickup truck. A freshman at Clemson at the time, he said he now realizes that he didn't vote in the election in which Bush captured a second term by beating U.S. Sen. John Kerry.

At last week's tea party forum, Faerber recounted his football exploits as a walk-on at Clemson, which included blocking a punt and catching a touchdown pass in the Tigers' 23-21 victory over the University of South Carolina in 2007. He also talked about going to law school and serving as an Air Force legal adviser while deployed in Afghanistan.

Later in the event, an audience member asked Faerber whether he had voted in the past three general elections and primaries. Besides incorrectly claiming that he voted for McCain, Faerber said he voted for Mitt Romney, the 2012 Republican presidential nominee.

"I was deployed during the last election, so I didn't get an opportunity to vote," he said, adding that he had voted in past primaries.

Faerber said this week that he had returned from Afghanistan and was stationed at a base in Arizona when the 2016 presidential election was held. 

"I just didn't vote," he said. "I had something else going on in my life."

Faerber said he has never voted in a primary.

He said this is not the way that he had hoped his campaign would start out.

"It feels like I am drinking water out of a fire hose right now," he said.

Follow Kirk Brown on Twitter @KirkBrown_AIM and email him at kirk.brown@independentmail.com