South Carolina Senate loses women in primary election
Originally published by Mary Green for WRDW
Last year, the group of South Carolina lawmakers known as the “Sister Senators” came into the national spotlight for their fight against restrictive abortion bans.
Now their fight appears to have cost some of them their seats – or put their positions into jeopardy.
Right now, there are six women in the South Carolina Senate. But next year, there could be as few as two female senators in the 46-member chamber.
“It was a sobering moment for all of us and one that I did not anticipate, to be quite honest with you,” said Sen. Mia McLeod, I-Richland. “But I do think, as I said in my farewell remarks, courage costs.”
In Tuesday’s primaries, all three of the state’s female Republican senators found themselves in tough positions.
Sen. Penry Gustafson lost her seat by a wide margin in a Midlands district that had been significantly redrawn in the state’s last redistricting cycle.
Sen. Sandy Senn was edged out in Charleston County by current state Rep. Matt Leber – by a margin narrow enough to trigger an automatic recount.
Meanwhile, Sen. Katrina Shealy, the longest-serving of the group, is headed to a runoff in two weeks for her Lexington County seat.
These women banded together with the Democratic and independent women of the Senate to stop a total abortion ban from passing – and then fought the six-week ban that’s now in effect.
Republican strategist Dave Wilson believes that played a key role in Tuesday’s results.
Wilson said: “The harsh stance that the Republican women took on the issue of abortion created an opportunity for their opposition to create enough doubt in the minds of the voters to say, ‘Do I really want to give this person another chance?’”
The two sister senators guaranteed or very likely to hold on to their seats are both Democrats – Margie Bright Matthews, who’s running unopposed, and Tameika Isaac Devine, who won her primary Tuesday by a wide margin and faces a third-party candidate in her solid blue district this November.
Meanwhile, McLeod is not seeking re-election.