<https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/south-carolina-county-republican-party-leader-dies-covid-19-n1277355>

Aug. 20, 2021, 6:13 PM PDT
By The Associated Press
GREENVILLE, S.C. - A tea party Republican who recently helped turn
over the party leadership in South Carolina's largest county has died
from complications of Covid-19.

Pressley Stutts died Thursday, according to other party leaders and
his family. The U.S. Navy veteran was 64.

Over the summer, Stutts led a group loyal to former President Donald
Trump to force the resignation of several Greenville County Republican
Party leaders after a failed bid to defeat state party chairman Drew
McKissick.

Stutts said he was following Trump's wishes to kick anyone who didn't
fully support the former president out of the Republican party.

Stutts had been hospitalized with Covid-19 since late July, frequently
updating his health on Facebook.

In early August, he posted that Covid-19 was a serious and deadly
man-made disease. The origin of the disease has not been determined by
scientists.

Stutts said everyone should take the disease seriously, but was
against mask mandates and felt people should not be pressured to get
the vaccine and should not demand others get the shots.

"Mandates and coercions DO NOT WORK especially when they come to us
from a government that has repeatedly lied to the American People time
and time again," Stutts wrote on his Facebook page.

His final post came five days before his death, when he wrote that he
had chosen to go on a ventilator and planned to "wake up from this
short rest and be back in the game soon!"

"This is my OWN decision. I trust God to keep me. I ask you to trust
Him, too," Stutts wrote.