With Tuesday’s Blue Wave, Congress Unlikely to Fund I-73 (the “Donald Trump Highway”) Unless Jim Clyburn Steps In

Posted Thursday, November 5, 2026 9:17 am

David Hucks (via MyrtleBeachSC)

Myrtle Beach News · Nov 5, 2026 https://x.com/myrtlebeachnews

For most of this year, the story of Interstate 73 in Horry County has been a story about a name. State lawmakers spent the spring voting to call the unbuilt road the “Donald Trump Highway,” and in August the president himself came to Myrtle Beach and promised the money would follow. Tuesday night changed the math behind that promise, putting the focus on the funding for the Donald Trump Highway.

Democrats took control of both chambers of Congress. With results still being counted, Ballotpedia tallied a House majority of at least 231 seats to 141 and a 54-44 edge in the Senate, with Democrats picking up at least 18 House seats and seven Senate seats [Ballotpedia, 2026]. NBC’s projections put the new House majority at its largest in nearly two decades, and the Washington Post described the outcome as a sharp rebuke of the president.

That matters here because I-73 has never had a funding problem in Columbia or Conway alone. It has a Washington problem. Local money is pledged, but it is locked until federal and state dollars arrive. Starting in January, the people who write federal transportation bills will be Democrats, and the road they are being asked to pay for carries the name of the president voters just rebuked. Grand Strand leaders now have one realistic path to federal money that runs through a Democrat: U.S. Rep. Jim Clyburn.

The Importance of the Donald Trump Highway for Local Development

Graham Nordone Wins — President Trump visited Myrtle Beach backing Darline Graham

A highway with a name, a permit and no construction money

Start with where the project actually stands. As planned, South Carolina’s section of I-73 would run about 80 miles from the North Carolina line through the Pee Dee to the Grand Strand, at a cost the Post and Courier puts near $2 billion [Post and Courier, 2026]. WIS has reported a lower $1.6 billion estimate [WIS, 2026]. Either figure dwarfs what has been committed so far.

The groundwork is further along than many residents realize. The state transportation department reported in February that it had acquired 99 percent of the right-of-way between I-95 and U.S. 501 and 95 percent between U.S. 501 and the Little Pee Dee River, with land work west of S.C. 22 still under way [WMBF, 2026]. Construction plans for the first phase have been ready since the end of 2024 but have sat unfunded, according to the Post and Courier’s reading of SCDOT records [Post and Courier, 2026].

The money is where it stalls. Horry County voters approved the RIDE IV program in November 2024, which includes roughly $450 million for I-73 [WIS, 2026]. But that local share only unlocks once SCDOT or a related agency has signed construction contracts to finish the road from Horry County to I-95 [WMBF, 2026]. In plain terms, the county’s money waits on everyone else’s.

The state has not filled the gap. Gov. Henry McMaster left I-73 out of his executive budget in 2024, 2025 and 2026, saying he still backs the road but wants stronger local support first [WIS, 2026]. Two years ago his office said support had “died down from local and county leaders” [WMBF, 2024]. SCDOT has said work cannot begin until the funding source is identified [WIS, 2026].

So the honest description of I-73 heading into this week was a shovel-ready road waiting on a federal check. That check now has to clear a Democratic Congress.

The name may now be the project’s biggest liability

The naming push began Jan. 20, when state Rep. Heather Crawford of Socastee filed legislation to designate the road the President Donald J. Trump Highway, crediting the president’s first administration with securing the Army Corps of Engineers permit that made it buildable. Horry County Council endorsed the idea in February, though it amended its resolution so the county’s support hinged on funding arriving during Trump’s term [WPDE, 2026]. The S.C. House passed the measure 76-28 on March 5, and the Senate gave it final approval March 25 [Fox Carolina, 2026]. U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham and U.S. Rep. Russell Fry both cheered it on.

In August, Trump told a Myrtle Beach crowd that the top people in Washington backed the road and “they’re going to have the funding that’s necessary” [WIS, 2026]. Days later, the Post and Courier noted that he described federal money as being in place but that no dollar figure had been disclosed. The only concrete congressional step it identified was Fry’s March request asking budget writers for an undisclosed sum for right-of-way work [Post and Courier, 2026].

Here is the problem that Tuesday exposed. Horry County Council itself treated the name as a bet that the money would come while Trump’s party ran Washington. That bet assumed Republican appropriators and a Republican transportation committee. Those gavels are changing hands. Asking a new Democratic majority to fund a road branded for the president it just campaigned against is a hard sell for any Democrat outside the region. It is fair to say the name helped rally state Republicans in March. It is just as fair to say it may cost the project friends in Washington in 2027.

That does not make I-73 dead. It does mean the project needs a sponsor the new majority trusts, and the local delegation does not have one. Fry, who represents Horry, Dillon, Marion and Marlboro counties, will serve in the minority. South Carolina’s Senate seats are held by Republicans in a Senate Democrats now control.

Why Clyburn is the only obvious bridge

Clyburn does not represent Horry County. His 6th District stretches from Charleston into Columbia, Orangeburg, Florence and Williamsburg counties [WRDW, 2026]. But he is South Carolina’s only Democrat in Congress, one of the longest-serving members of the House, and he has a record on this exact road.

In 2010, Clyburn joined Republican Rep. Henry Brown and Democratic Rep. John Spratt in meeting with then-Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood to press for I-73 money. Afterward, Clyburn announced a $10 million federal award for the project, saying the delegation was working together toward “making Myrtle Beach accessible via a major interstate” [Office of Rep. Henry Brown, 2010]. More recently, McMaster credited Clyburn and Graham together for securing federal money to replace the I-95 bridges over Lake Marion [Construction Equipment Guide, 2024]. He has a track record of bipartisan highway deals for South Carolina.

He also has the position. When Clyburn announced his reelection bid in March, he told reporters that if Democrats won back the House he would lead committees overseeing transportation, housing and urban development [Post and Courier, 2026]. Former state party chair Jaime Harrison argued at the time that this would put Clyburn in position to steer more road and bridge money to South Carolina [SC Daily Gazette, 2026]. With Democrats now in charge, that position appears to have arrived. [Editor: confirm Clyburn’s Nov. 3 race call before publishing.]

There is an irony that Grand Strand Republicans will have to swallow. Earlier this year, state Republicans, at the president’s urging, tried to redraw Clyburn out of his district, an effort the S.C. Senate blocked [ABC News 4, 2026]. The congressman some in the party tried to remove may now be the person best placed to deliver the party’s signature local road.

Would he? Nothing in the public record shows Clyburn has taken a position on the Trump naming, and he has no obvious political reason to champion a highway with that name on it. But I-73 also runs through rural Pee Dee communities that share his priorities, and Pee Dee development leaders describe it as a jobs and hurricane-evacuation project, not a political monument [Post and Courier, 2026]. If he engages, expect him to frame it that way.

What this means for Horry County residents

The practical stakes are familiar to anyone who has sat in summer traffic on U.S. 501. Supporters have long argued that the Grand Strand is at a disadvantage against beach destinations with direct interstate access [WMBF, 2021], and local legislators such as Rep. Lee Hewitt have stressed the need for a second hurricane evacuation route for southern Horry County [Post and Courier, 2026]. The project is not without critics in the region, either. Some Dillon officials have warned that the new route could pull traffic away from their city [WBTW, 2026].

For taxpayers, the most important detail is the RIDE IV contingency. If federal and state money never materializes, the roughly $450 million in local I-73 money cannot be spent on construction. Residents who voted for that sales tax in 2024 should be asking the county what happens to that commitment if the federal piece slips past 2028.

County Council Chairman Johnny Gardner summed up local expectations after the president’s August pledge. He said he hopes to see the road built “hopefully in my lifetime” [Post and Courier, 2026]. The project has been studied since a Reagan-era earmark in 1982 [Post and Courier, 2026], so that is not a joke.

What’s Next

Three deadlines will decide whether I-73 moves or stalls again.

December 11, 2026. Federal surface transportation programs expired Sept. 30 and Congress extended them only through Dec. 11 [Congressional Research Service, 2026]. A five-year, $580 billion House reauthorization cleared committee in May but stalled on the floor [Bloomberg Government, 2026]. South Carolina has been part of a coalition of states pushing for new-interstate money in that bill [Post and Courier, 2026]. The outgoing Republican Congress can pass it in the lame-duck session, punt it with another short extension, or leave it to the new majority.

January 3, 2027. The new Congress is sworn in. If the highway bill is punted, Democrats will rewrite it with their own priorities. That is the moment a Clyburn request, or a public refusal, would matter most.

Fiscal 2027 appropriations. Fry’s right-of-way request rides on spending bills that Democratic appropriators will now shape. Local officials should watch whether it survives.

The questions for our local leaders are direct. Has anyone from Horry County Council, the Myrtle Beach Area Chamber or Fry’s office asked Clyburn for help? Would they ask the legislature to drop the Trump name if that is the price of Democratic votes? And what is the county’s plan for the RIDE IV money if the federal share never comes?