Nicholas Shalosky (born 1987) is a native South Carolina attorney and politician. While still in college, he won a seat as a write-in candidate for the Charleston County Constituent District No. 20 School Board using only campaigning on the Internet through Facebook; he did not spend any funds. He won with 22 votes.[1][2] He represented the 20th District, downtown Charleston, for a four-year term, which ended in 2012.[3]
Shalosky is the first openly gay elected official in South Carolina history.[1][4][5] When elected, Shalosky was the youngest openly gay elected official in the United States.[2][6][7]
He is an attorney in Charleston, SC. In October 2013 Shalosky was selected as a Diversity Fellow at the Charleston School of Law.
Nick Shalosky grew up in Conway, South Carolina.[1] He "came out" about his sexuality during his sophomore year of high school.[8] His parents still live there. His mother is Vanessa Viles Shalosky. She spoke of her experiences raising a gay child at Charleston School of Law's "My Gay Child" forum.[9]
Nick Shalosky has been a public figure about his sexuality; he spoke at Myrtle Beach and South Carolina Pride gatherings; in 2009 he attended the National Equality March in Washington, D.C.
He attended the College of Charleston where he was a political science major.[6] In his undergraduate years, he was a member of the South Carolina Student Legislature, and the Charleston 40.[6] He graduated in 2010 with a degree in Political Science and Geography. He went to Charleston School of Law, where he also served as a research assistant, and was a member of the Moot Court Board. He was a MUSC Presidential Scholar and served as the President of the Alliance for Equality.[6]
In March 2013 during his last semester of the Charleston School of Law, Shalosky traveled to Washington, DC to hear oral argument related to same-sex marriage cases at the US Supreme Court. California's Proposition 8 was assessed in terms of the constitutionality of marriage equality (or inequality) at the state level, while the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) case challenged federal law.[10][11]
He graduated in 2013 with a Juris Doctor. Shalosky incorporated his experiences into a 2014 class offering at the Charleston School of Law, "Gender Issues and the Law," which he developed as a Diversity Fellow.[12]
He and his partner Naylor Brownell, a medical resident, became engaged New Year's Eve in 2012 but could not legally marry in the state of South Carolina until November 2014.[6][7][10][13]
Shalosky was involved in politics in the late 2000s and became the secretary of the SC Stonewall Democrats chapter; he was also one of the founding board members of the group.[8] He learned about the Stonewall Democrats through Tom Chorlton, a professor and former executive director of the National Gay & Lesbian Democratic Club, a forerunner organization of the Stonewall Democrats.[8] Shalosky participated in the 2008 presidential campaigns volunteering for Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton, and the successful candidate Barack Obama.[1] At local events he questioned Republican candidates on their positions on gay rights.[1]
He also ran his own campaign as a write-in candidate for the Charleston County School Board.[1] This resulted from his findings during an independent research project at the College of Charleston on the impacts of new technology and the Internet on local elections. Learning of a school board seat that had not attracted candidates 2 weeks before the election, Shalosky he established a moderate online presence using the social networking site Facebook to promote his candidacy.[1] "I thought it would be interesting to see how students could use social networking sites to get one of their own elected."[1][5] He did not spend any money to campaign.[14] At the time, Obama's campaign was being praised for its use of social media to engage younger voters.[15]
According to The Digitel, Shalosky said he was conducting a "social experiment" to see how use of Facebook could affect a local campaign.[16]
He wrote on Facebook:
Preliminary election results showed different winners, who were sworn in and attended meetings, than were ultimately certified by the election board following the count of votes for write-in candidates.[17][18] Shalosky won a seat on the 7-member school board based on the 22 votes cast for him. He had no opponent for the seat. He represented downtown Charleston's 20th District for a four-year term, starting in November 2008.[15][19]
He said, "Such rapid mobilization might not have been possible only two years ago. But with a Facebook page and a knowledge of online organizing, I secured my winning margin without spending a penny."[8] He was the only school board member elected who was under 40 years old.[5] His professor Bill Moore said Shalosky would start an "independent study of Internet use in politics as part of his curriculum."[15] Post and Courier columnist Ken burger noted that while more traditional advertising of radio and television had also changed the way politicians get votes, those mediums were "top-to-bottom communication," but the Internet allowed "grass-roots groups to dictate outcomes."[15] Burger believed that Shalosky's campaign was the beginning of what will likely be major change to local politics due to use of the Internet.[15]
During his term, in 2010 Shalosky was elected by the board members as vice-chairman of the District 20 Constituent Board. He later was elected by them as the board's chairperson, a rotating position.[6]