MCCLAIN JUNIOR LOBBYIST GROUP

Courtney McClain is a 2023 Graduate from the University of South Carolina-Columbia. McClain completed her Bachelor of Arts in Journalism and Communications with a minor in Political Science. She is also part of 8% of USC students to graduate with Graduate Leadership Distinction, GLD, in Diversity and Social Advocacy. Ms.McClain will attend Howard University in the fall of 2023 for the Political Science Master’s Program concentrating in Black Politics. She aspires to become a political correspondent and to be the first Black Woman to run for South Carolina’s Fourth Congressional District.

 

Ms. McClain is an award-winning activist and organizer who has been active in South Carolina and the East Coast since 2020, serving as President of the South Carolina NAACP Youth and College Division and Co-Chair of the Advocacy and Policy Committee for the National NAACP Youth and College Division. She is also a 2022 James E. Clyburn Fellow, 2022 Martin Luther King Jr. Social Justice Award recipient, 2X AAAS Black Catalyst Award recipient, and Chairwoman of the Inclusion and Equity Committee for the 114th UofSC Student Senate. In this role, Ms.McClain ended with a 100% legislative pass rate. She expanded the minority representation in the Student Senate from just six Black Senators to the entire College of Arts becoming two-thirds minorities. Elected by her peers Ms.McClain also currently serves as the 2022-2023 Miss Black USC, using her platform to empower Black collegiate students, most specifically young Black women. 

 

Ms.McClain formerly served as the Executive Chair of the the USC Student Government Equity Task Force, Principal Organizer and Strategist for Upstate Action Alliance, and was the former Designated Legislation Writer of the Political Inequality Advocacy Committee for the United States Youth Government.

 

McClain stated, “Being 23 years old there are many things I am unsure of, but there are three things I am certain; my mission to alleviate and overall eradicate inequities and disparities in politics and journalism for Black women, educating and restoring power to the oppressed in my community, and my unquenchable thirst to learn.”

 

Ms.McClain has experience in the South Carolina Statehouse and on Capitol Hill, interning for Congresswoman Cori Bush, and paging in the South Carolina House of Representatives. She has lobbied in both the South Carolina House and Senate on women’s reproductive rights, gun violence, voter suppression, and CRT and assisted in legislation writing in Congresswoman Bush’s office. During her time in the office, she contributed language to legislation regarding reparations, climate disasters, and labor, and became a member of one of the first House of Representatives offices to unionize in 2022. 

 

From the moment Ms.McClain testified in her first committee, she saw that there was a need for young adult minority representation in the legislative process. So, in September of 2022,  she became the youngest Black woman in the state of South Carolina to found a lobbyist group, McClain Junior Lobbyist Group (MJL). She has also completed three semesters as a policy intern for the nationally acclaimed Political Commentator Angela Rye.