U.S. House District 3: Meet your 2026 Candidates

Who's running for U.S. House of Representatives in South Carolina's District 3? Meet Sheri Biggs and Eunice Lehmacher, two of the candidates on the ballot in the November 3, 2026 general election. Hear where they stand on the issues facing voters, then share this episode with your neighbors before Election Day. Libertarian Brian Corriea was invited to participate but was unable to join us.

How the interviews worked:
All candidates received the same questions at the time of their invitation to join us, and they were given 10 minutes for their interview. Candidates were allowed to bring along a companion, such as a campaign manager, family member, or friend, and to record our session themselves. There were no edits made to the interview.

Candidate links:

• Sheri Biggs

• Eunice Lehmacher

• Sample Ballot

Introduction

Katy Smith: When you go to the polls on November 3rd or during early voting, you have the chance to vote for important offices such as U.S. Senate, U.S. Congress, Governor, and State House members. We want to help you get to know your candidates so you can make an informed decision. I'm Katy Smith with Greater Good Greenville, and on this episode of Simple Civics Greenville County, we feature interviews with your candidates for U.S. House of Representatives District 3, Republican Sheri Biggs, and Democrat Eunice Lehmacher. Libertarian candidate Brian Corriea was unable to participate. District 3 generally covers the western portion of South Carolina, including southern and western parts of Greenville County, as well as Anderson, Pickens, Oconee, and surrounding upstate counties. Here's how the interviews worked. All candidates received the same questions at the time of their invitation to join us, and they were given 10 minutes for their interview. Candidates were allowed to bring along a companion, such as a campaign manager, family member, or friend, and to record our session themselves. There were no edits made to the interview. We've put links to the participating candidates' preferred internet presence on the episode page.

Meet Sheri Biggs: U.S. House of Representatives District 3 Candidate

Katy Smith: First up alphabetically is Sheri Biggs. I'm pleased to be joined by Congresswoman Sheri Biggs, who is running for re-election for the 3rd District of the House of Representatives in South Carolina. Thanks so much for joining us.

Sheri Biggs: Thank you so much for having me.

Katy Smith: Well, tell us about yourself and why you're running for re-election.

Sheri Biggs: Well, great. My background is in health care, and I think working with individuals, not just with my profession in health care, but in my community service work, just seeing people on a day-to-day basis. And I did a lot of work with veterans and first responders and law enforcement. And I really felt like our system was broken. I felt like we could do better and that our taxpayers deserved more, whether it was from a health care perspective, a mental health perspective, or, you know, another third piece that I saw that was really missing was the spiritual aspect of holistic healing. And so I originally ran for the 3rd District of South Carolina as a candidate to heal our nation. And I think we have really been working hard and getting a lot accomplished. I feel like two years has flown by very fast and just look forward to continuing my work in Congress. And I think I have a lot to offer for the 3rd District. I'm out and about with my constituents and feel like I can relate as a mom, as a health care provider and as a wife and as a Christian. And it's really important to me. So that's why I'm running.

Katy Smith: Thank you. What do you believe is most on constituents' minds that you can address should you win?

Sheri Biggs: You know, I think we try to make this harder than it really is. And my district covers 11 counties. And I can tell you that I don't just focus on the highly populated areas because, you know, what may be important in one county is not the same in another county in our district. So I've been out and about and meeting with individuals. And I think people, the common family, just wants to be able to make a good living, make ends meet, take care of their family, have less government. That includes paying less taxes and just live a good, wholesome life. And that seems like common sense. And I think that's what I have to offer. I represent the people and our holistic values and our Christian conservative views, and those are the things that I want to uphold. You know, my background in the military gives me a little different perspective with our day-to-day operations, not just on a local, state, military level, or federal, but I think allows me to know the needs firsthand and to have those conversations with the members that it impacts and to do something about it and really make a difference.

Katy Smith: Thank you. What would be your plans to address constituent concerns and interests?

Sheri Biggs: Well, I think my record already speaks for itself these past two years. I am one of the most conservative members of Congress. I have represented my district, and South Carolina's 3rd District is very conservative. We are a strong red state, and my district is probably one of the most in the whole nation as far as being conservative. So I think my votes speak a lot for themselves, and I would encourage anyone who is searching for the candidate that best represents them to visit my website at Sheri Biggs.

You know, to me, that's important for you to know about the candidate that you want to represent, that you want to send to D.C., and I think I would continue that same work, whether it's with our military, working with our local manufacturers. South Carolina is known for the great work that it does. And not only am I able to make sure that our small businesses are taken care of, but how we can incorporate those items. I was able to introduce and pass the Made in America Defense Act, which helps set up not only the U.S. military for success, but we can provide items to our allies to make sure that items are obtained quickly and with a lot less red tape and government interference. So those are just a few things that are on my agenda. I'm all about protecting the home front. I serve on Homeland Security, Foreign Affairs, and Science, Space, and Technology. And those are all interests, energy independence, that impacts the 3rd District and our entire nation, for that matter.

Katy Smith: Thank you. We have a little bit more time left. Is there anything else you'd like to share with listeners?

Sheri Biggs: Well, I think we need someone that is looking to serve in that capacity to make sure that our constituents' needs are met and that they aren't there to be self-serving or to have an ulterior motive. And that's one thing that I think my career, my professional career, and everything that I've done since running, my campaign from the very beginning and this first term that I'm completing in Congress. I think my record speaks for itself. I love serving others. I think that's what we were here to do. And I do try to prioritize my constituents and make sure that I'm representing each and every one of them, whether they agree with me 100%. I try to make myself available so that we can have these one-on-one conversations, and that I represent every person in my district, regardless of whether they're in a highly populated area or a very rural area. And I know about serving others, and I know about putting others first. And I just appreciate this opportunity to serve South Carolina's 3rd Congressional District, and I look forward to serving them this upcoming term.

Katy Smith: Well, thank you so much for joining us, and thank you for your willingness to continue to serve.

Sheri Biggs: Thank you so much for the opportunity.

Meet Eunice Lehmacher: U.S. House of Representatives District 3 Candidate

Katy Smith: Next up is Eunice Lehmacher. I'm pleased to be here with Eunice Lehmacher, who is running for U.S. Congress in District 3. Thanks so much for joining us.

Eunice Lehmacher: I'm glad to be here.

Katy Smith: Well, tell us about yourself and why you're running for this office.

Eunice Lehmacher: Okay, thank you. Again, I'm Eunice Lehmacher, running for Congress. I want to be your congresswoman. We're in the year of the 250th anniversary, so "We the People, in order to form a more perfect union," and I'm here for we, for all of us, for taking care of our concerns and for our future.

I've learned those values from my father, who was a pastor, and my family, that we all matter. And I took the values from my home into my professions. I started out as a high school teacher. I taught math and physics. And then I was a librarian at a public library. I worked in a church as an educator for a while. And then I was in Washington, D.C., at the time, so I got a master's in social work. And I also studied how to help people with things like trauma, counseling, but also learned about policy, public policy. And I've now spent four decades helping people. And you asked why I'm running for office. Four decades of helping people means that I've heard a lot of stories where I've learned that it's not enough for folks like me, a medical social worker, to be in the hospital or, back when I had my private practice, to help people individually. Some of the problems are the government. And that's why I decided to run. Just to give you a couple of examples besides my profession, I also volunteer, have been volunteering for decades. When my children were in school, grade school, in the early 2000s, it was closer to walk to school than it was to drive, but they had to walk over a very busy bridge with no curbs.

So I was able to organize the school into walk-to-school days where we could close the road, work with the leaders of the City of Clemson to create a walking bridge, which is there now. Now, that took a long time. But now children of all sorts walk to school in that location. That took community organizing. Or when I worked for Oconee Memorial Hospital, I led, and I still lead, the dementia support group. And I learned, as you can probably guess, that caregivers also end up depressed and have problems. So I asked the hospital, could we have a support group for, not a support group, counseling for the caregivers? And he said, "Great idea. Where would the money come from?" So I went out and found that in a grant, and I started a program which I led for several years that gave the caregivers counseling. We need a better health care system. We need better sidewalks. Those are only two of many examples. I could give you hundreds more. But it's not good enough for me to be in the community doing my work or for me to be in my profession. I want to change the leadership and have better representation so we can help all of us with our future.

Katy Smith: Thank you. What do you believe is most on constituents' minds that you can address should you win?

Eunice Lehmacher: Well, I've been talking to constituents by canvassing, phone banking, simply being out at the community and events. And the first question I ask is, what are you concerned about at the federal government level? And pretty much across the board, everybody says the high prices, inflation, our food price, our energy costs, housing, health care, college, child care. It's getting harder and harder to do what we used to call the American dream. Perhaps we still do. And it seems that there's a real inability of our leadership in Washington to make our lives better. Politicians for decades have said, "I'm going to lower your prices. I'm going to fix the economy." But right now, in 2025 and '26, we can see that they did quite the opposite of that. They raised our prices by an unjust war. There's corruption in the government where they're making money or pursuing political enemies instead of the local priorities that matter to us. I'm in this for the many, not the money. So high prices is something I hear a lot. Corruption is something I hear a lot. And leaders just being out of touch or absent from the needs of their constituents.

Katy Smith: What would be your plans to address those constituent concerns and interests?

Eunice Lehmacher: Well, Katy, you're only giving me a few minutes. I have hundreds of plans. Please do go to my website, which is linked below. It's Eunice, F-O-R-S-C. But let me give you a couple examples. One of the things I want to do is save Social Security and Medicare. You may have heard that Social Security is going to run out of enough to fund by 2032 now. It used to be 2034 or '35. But this administration and the incumbent who I'm running against hasn't done anything to stop that. In fact, they've made it be less likely to survive past 2032. There's a number of reasons for that: benefiting the wealthy, immigration policies, the deficit that's gone up. So I want to stop some of those policies and get back to helping the many seniors who depend on Social Security and Medicare, but all of us. I'm not retired yet. I want to have it when I retire as well. So I'm going to save Social Security, Medicare, and, in general, work on the health care system.

We've seen cuts to Medicaid and the ACA, Affordable Care Act. I mean, recently. I want to restore the funding to those and increase it. I'm a health care provider myself, so I benefit from those programs, even though that's not my insurance. I'm Blue Cross Blue Shield. But all of us in the health care industry are paid by those systems that got cut. And health care is perhaps one of the biggest industries in South Carolina with the most jobs. So cuts to Medicare, Medicaid, and the ACA hurts every hospital, every doctor's office. My district is primarily rural. So I want to see more doctors and hospitals in those rural areas, not less. We've got to turn that around.

I'm also very interested in utility costs. For me, they're going up every year for electricity. We can do things to change that, as countries around the world are doing and states like Texas are doing. I want to restore the grants to solar, wind, and other renewables. I want to look at data centers, which potentially are raising our electrical costs by requiring that infrastructure that would bring electricity to them. I'm not opposed to data centers or business, of course, but if a big company like Google, Microsoft, Apple, you know the names, is coming in to build a data center and taking profits out of our area, then they should pay for their own power. So let's have them put solar on the roof and all around them, right? Make clean energy themselves, and they help pay for the infrastructure. Right now, utility costs are going up because we're putting a burden on the ratepayers. So that could be a federal or, of course, a state law that could require data centers to make their own money and stop this increase in utility costs.

I mentioned before corruption. There are too many people in office right now that are breaking their oath to the Constitution and, quite frankly, breaking the law. And there are too many members in Congress that are supporting that. I believe there's consequences for breaking the law. So impeachment is one possible consequence, and there's other consequences. But we do not need to allow people who are running the country to continue to profit their own supporters and themselves and protect their own interests, but forget that everyone has a higher loyalty. The higher loyalty is the voter. The higher loyalty is the people who sent us there. So I'm going to address the concerns that my voters are telling me about by having town halls and listening to their concerns and then taking those concerns to Congress and making change.

Katy Smith: Thank you. We have a little bit more time. Is there anything else you'd like to share with listeners?

Eunice Lehmacher: Sure. I do hope that you'll look me up on the website, euniceforsc.com. I also have a lot of social media channels. I hope you'll follow me. As I said, I'm in this for the many and not the money. One way I'm going to do that is have town halls all over the district. Each year, I'll go to four different counties, have them quarterly. I'm going to have office hours in person and virtually. I want to hear from you. As I said, many candidates promise things. I bet you on this podcast, if you're a regular listener, you hear every single candidate say, "I'm going to lower your prices." Just like I said, "I'm going to improve the economy." Well, I'm a health care provider that knows what some of the holdups are in health care. So elect health care providers. I'm a mother. I know what it's like to take care of children and send them to school. So elect more women. Elect more health care providers. But also, I want to tell you this quote by Valarie Kaur. It seems kind of dark right now. And what she says is, what if the darkness that we're in is not the darkness of the tomb, but the darkness of the womb?

I think right now on this podcast, you're listening to some people that really could bring the country around to a better place. I hope you'll vote for me and all those people that are in it for you and for all of us and for our future. Please consider carefully, this could be the darkness of the womb, and things could be better. I'm in it for a better future. And thank you, Katy.

Katy Smith: Thank you so much for joining us, and thank you so much for your willingness to serve.