He was on Melrose Place. Now he’s in SC to encourage bipartisan civic engagement
Standing with a bipartisan group of lawmakers and political strategists, a hopeful former actor is working to increase civic engagement in politics.
Andrew Shue, who starred in the 1990s show Melrose Place, is working with South Carolina political insiders and created SC Forum, an online platform for people to engage with state residents and identify areas of consensus supported by at least 70% of the forum participants.
The goal of the forum is to be nonpartisan, with citizen-driven efforts to bring voters together from across the political spectrum to present ideas to legislators.
He is working with lawmakers, donors, political strategists, political consultant firms, from both sides of the aisle in the effort. Shue has also launched initiatives in New Hampshire and Nevada, which are also early presidential primary states.
“We’re coming out in pairs. Noah’s Ark. We are going to do this together. This is the right idea in the right place, at the right time,” Shue said.
The effort includes Republican strategist Dave Wilson, former SC Democratic Chairman Trav Robertson, Republican state Rep. Brandon Newton, Democratic state Sen. Tameika Isaac Devine, Democratic state Rep. Beth Bernstein and Republican state Rep. Carla Schuessler, among others.
They want to encourage civic engagement in a political environment that has become polarized. The group forum already was active on online before Wednesday’s launch running sponsored posts on social media.
“We know that there’s division in this country. We know that we have systems that are not working properly. We also know that there isn’t a partisan fix to these problems. The American people must be the ones who drive that change, and they must drive it together. If we start facing these problems together, instead of facing off against each other, we can do this,” Shue said.
Robertson insisted no one corporate group is funding the organization with an ulterior motive.
“The fact is, is that everybody wants to paint us as having either a far-right or far-left agenda. The only agenda is to participate. That’s it. Five minutes can determine the future of this state. And so if we create something that catches fire and something that creates or changes the body politics, then we will have done our job,” Robertson said.
Michelle Brandt, a former vice chair of the SC Democratic Party, said she has traveled the state and heard both Republican and Democratic voters who are frustrated with the performative politics and lack of productive bills in the system.
“The struggles I see in Democratic circles, like the crisis of affordable housing, are the exact same ones I’m hearing across the aisle,” Brandt said.
Jennifer Cunningham, the first vice chair of the Richland County Republican Party, said moving forward requires a shared understanding.
“Often the loudest voices get mistaken for the majority. But loud is not the same as consensus,” Cunningham said.
If the forum is going to be successful and gain participation from 100,000 people as they hope, they’ll need to cut through voter apathy and/or feelings that people’s voices aren’t heard by the political system.
“It’s allowing for that voice to have that move back to a center where we can talk about issues, because apathy often happens because of a lack of a sense of understanding, feeling like they’re being heard,” Wilson said. “We’re thinking that this is going to be a place where the void can be filled, because we’re actually bringing people to the table without the political agenda.”
This story was originally published February 25, 2026 at 2:28 PM with the headline "He was on Melrose Place. Now he’s in SC to encourage bipartisan civic engagement."
