the Oasis

By Scott Morgan, Managing Editor
Dec. 29, 2025

Predictions are not our thing. But there are some things The Oasis will be looking into as 2025 ends and 2026 looms.

It’s tempting (Lord, how it’s tempting) to make sweeping predictions about what lies ahead in 2026. But journalistic graveyards are thick with the ashes of end-of-December predictions that look ridiculous by early May.

Instead, I’d rather look at the kinds of issues The Oasis is likely to tackle in South Carolina in 2026.

Not all growth is equal
South Carolina is, as it has been for about six years, one of the fastest-growing states in the country. In 2020, the state experienced a population growth of more than 10%. That cooled notably by this year, but the nearly 1.5% growth the state experienced in 2025 is still a top-5 number.

But not all of the state is growing. While metro hubs like Greenville and Charleston (and their suburbs) grow by the month, other areas of the state, like Saluda, Allendale, Barnwell, and Bamberg counties, for instance, are losing population. 

In fact, the South Carolina Revenue and Fiscal Affairs Office projects that six counties – Allendale, Bamberg, Clarendon, Dillon, Fairfield, and Marion –  will see population loss of greater than 30% by 2040.

What will that mean for rural counties (which the six named above are)? What will it mean for housing affordability? Or transportation and infrastructure? Healthcare?

Local agencies are stepping up, but how far?
The Trump administration’s drastic rewriting of the federal funding landscape sent local services advocates scrambling in 2025. 

Even though housing advocates, substance addiction workers, food banks, and nonprofit organizations knew that big changes were coming, their ability to figure a path forward got tested big this past year.

Small agencies found themselves forced to find new language to use in grant applications and to figure out new ways to replace funds lost in the administration’s purge of all things it sees as politically misaligned with its aims.

For many nonprofits, individual funding (i.e., donations from private citizens) increased shortly after federal funding sources waned or ceased. 

Public media outlets, too, including in South Carolina, saw pledge drives bring in more than stated goals.

But how long will that last? In 2026, agencies could see a sobering return to business as usual among donors. And if (big if) predictions of a slowing economy and stalling wages in 2026 come true, donors would be in less of a position to part with their money, especially as everyday items like food and sundries at the grocery store stay pricey.

How will these agencies survive on the kindness of individuals? What will happen to the services provided to local housing initiatives, substance addiction treatment and prevention, and food distribution – especially as massive cuts under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act take direct funding away from these kinds of services? And how will South Cariolina respond in a year in which voters select a new governor and at least one new U.S. House representative?

Immigration isn’t uniform either
South Carolina doesn’t have a large population of residents who were born in other countries. According to the American Community Survey from the U.S. Census Bureau, 351,009 residents of South Carolina in 2024 were born in another country. About half of those were from Latin America, a quarter from Asia, and the rest a mix of Europe, Africa, and other places in North America.

Foreign-born residents account for about 6.5% of the state’s population. And yet, we paid an awful lot of attention to people from other countries in 2025; and particularly to one of those groups of immigrants.

South Carolina’s immigrant picture and its part in the national conversation are small, but nuanced. 

On my own street, I’ve watched the literal complexion of my neighborhood change and then change again, because of shifting priorities in immigration policies. I’ve watched these changes have immediate and sizable effects on housing values and home occupancy in my neighborhood, not to mention on the tenor of the neighborhood overall.

Far from my own living room, in rural counties no one is watching, communities of residents born in other countries are trying to disappear into the backdrop, and the state’s press outlets are not equipped to suss out the nuances of cultural differences in stories we’re not telling anyway.

Food security is waning, and data is too
The Trump administration’s cuts to funding have primary and residual effects. On their surface, federal cuts to programs and agencies are intended to rein in spending directly – DEI-related cuts, for example, are intended to address what the administration sees as discriminatory action. 

But such overt waves create ripples across public safety net programs. Federal cuts to USDA this past spring, for example, have put farmers and food banks in a bad spot. Fewer dollars are propping up supply chains and fewer dollars are finding their way to food banks, just as food is becoming a larger piece of household expense.

Then there are the subtler ripples. I’ve written about silence and about the fear that a growing number of people have of going on the record to speak to the realities they’re facing. This fear of speaking, although completely understandable, makes it exceedingly difficult to report what is happening.

Data collections are also suffering and this is creating similar problems. The Trump White House has scrubbed and removed countless pages of data from federal websites. These were the kinds of databases people like me would rely on to get a sense of trends and scale.

And as federal cuts trickle down to county and local governments, then into private and nonprofit organizations, there are fewer people keeping track of numbers that make databases.

How will these realities affect how news outlets, including this one, deliver information and stories in 2026? How creative will we have to get to find stories that are not getting told, and that might not be welcomed by those who’d rather starve us by removing our food source?

All I can predict is that The Oasis will do its best to keep you talking with and among your neighbors. Remember, we live here too. We want South Carolina to work for everyone. 

So we’ll see you in 2026. Now and until then, be good to the world. 

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