Signs for Sen. Katrina Shealy, R-Lexington, and her challenger, Carlisle Kennedy, seen on Sunset Boulevard in West Columbia. (Abraham Kenmore/SC Daily Gazette)
COLUMBIA — The last remaining Republican woman in the state Senate is fighting to keep her seat in a primary runoff with a former legislator’s son.
The opposition to Sen. Katrina Shealy has centered on her votes during last year’s debate on banning abortions in South Carolina, when she joined with her fellow “sister senators” to help block a near-total ban and ultimately voted against the law that made it illegal past six weeks of pregnancy.
Her challengers have cited Shealy’s abortion votes in casting the Senate’s lone female chairwoman as no longer conservative. And Personhood South Carolina, a group pushing to ban all abortions, is working to oust her.
“This has been the most negative race that I’ve ever run in,” Shealy told the SC Daily Gazette of the primary.
Yet, despite a nasty re-election race that has seen protesters outside her church, giant billboards and a website that call her a liar, and even a pellet through her front window, Shealy stands by all of her votes.
Senate Family and Veterans Services Chairwoman Katrina Shealy, R-Lexington, talks to Sen. Tom Young, R-Aiken, on the opening day of session Tuesday, Jan. 9, 2024, in Columbia, S.C. (File/Mary Ann Chastain/Special to the SC Daily Gazette)
Ideally, she said, she’d prefer a state law that bans abortions after the actual heartbeat of a fetus can be heard, while keeping exceptions for victims of rape or incest and to save the mother’s life.
The state’s so-called “fetal heartbeat” law is a bit of a misnomer, as it bans abortions as soon as an ultrasound detects cardiac activity. What the ultrasound detects at six weeks are electrical impulses in a growing embryo, not the pumping of a fetus’ developed heart, which doesn’t happen until at least nine weeks.
Shealy’s runoff challenger, attorney Carlisle Kennedy, supports the six-week ban, according to his campaign website. It’s unclear how he would vote in next year’s renewed GOP push for a ban from the outset of pregnancy. The former prosecutor, in his first bid for elected office, did not respond to multiple requests from the SC Daily Gazette.
“We need younger people, a new generation of leadership to step up and take the reins,” he told the Gazette in April after filing to challenge Shealy. “I believe she has been in the Columbia swamp too long.”
Senate GOP support
While Shealy didn’t vote with most Republicans on the six-week law, she’s been instrumental in passing other legislation on the GOP agenda, said Senate Majority Leader Shane Massey, explaining why his caucus is spending money to keep Shealy in the upper chamber.
“The campaign against Katrina Shealy has tried to paint her as squishy and ineffective, and the reality is the exact opposite,” said Massey, R-Edgefield. “There’s nothing about Katrina Shealy that is weak. She’s a fighter, and we’re trying to make sure everybody understands how important and effective she’s been.”
Republicans have “had a very successful four-year Senate term,” he continued, rattling off a list that includes a $1 billion income tax cut and taxpayer-funded scholarships for private K-12 tuition. “Those big-ticket conservative wins would not have happened without Katrina Shealy.”
In the June 11 primary, the chairwoman of the Senate Family and Veterans Services Committee picked up 40% of the vote in a three-way contest for the District 23 seat that’s entirely in ruby red Lexington County.
Kennedy, the son of former state Rep. Ralph Kennedy, trailed her in the primary at 36%. The third candidate in the race, former missionary and conservative activist Zoe Warren, has endorsed Kennedy for the runoff. Others backing Kennedy include state Rep. R.J. May of Lexington, a founder of the hardline Freedom Caucus in the House, which is looking to expand into the state Senate.
Shealy’s other supporters include her predecessor, former state GOP Sen. Jake Knotts.
Twelve years ago, Shealy defeated Knotts as a petition candidate after a lawsuit from his supporters — challenging a campaign filing technicality — resulted in Shealy and hundreds of other candidates statewide being tossed off primary ballots. Shealy was the lone petition candidate to win a legislative seat.
Now, he’s broadcasting his support for Shealy with a campaign sign in his yard.
“She’s doing a pretty good job,” Knotts told the SC Daily Gazette, adding he doesn’t know Kennedy at all.
He applauds her for voting against a total ban. Republicans who argue abortions should never be legal, even in cases of rape or incest or when the mother’s life is in jeopardy, don’t make sense, he said.
In those scenarios, “my daughters and my wife are going to win every time,” said Knotts, who has two daughters and a granddaughter.
Accusations and a razor blade
Shealy said that some of the negativity from the race spilled into actual harassment in the runup to the primary. She is not, however, accusing Kennedy of being behind it.
“Somebody did slit my tire at church because there was a razor blade. We got the razor blade out of it,” she said. “Things like that, you know somebody did, but you can’t prove who did it.”
Shealy did not report the slit tire to police, but she did file a police report after a window in her home was broken. According to the April 19 report from the Lexington County Sheriff’s Department, the window was broken from the outside. Shealy thinks someone shot the window with a pellet gun.
Shealy is the longest serving woman in the Senate. When she was elected in 2012, she was the only female in the 46-member chamber.
The Senate’s two other GOP women definitely won’t return next year. In the June 11 primary, freshman Sen. Penry Gustafson, R-Camden, was trounced by an overwhelming margin, while Sen. Sandy Senn, R-Charleston, lost by just 33 votes.
All three GOP women attracted challengers with their abortion votes last year. But Shealy said the attacks on her went too far.
“They’re throwing crazy things up on billboards like, ‘I’m not pro-life. I’m a baby-killer,’ That’s just a lie,” said Shealy, pointing to her record of advocating for children and families. “I’ve done more for children in South Carolina than any other legislator.”
An organization called Personhood South Carolina has been particularly vocal, labeling Shealy, Senn and Gustafson “sisters for death,” a phrase Shealy called “childish,” and putting up a website called “Katrina Shealy Lies” among other advertising.
Personhood South Carolina was founded in 2015 by state Sen. Richard Cash, R-Powdersville, but he told the Gazette that he resigned from the organization the day before being sworn in as a senator in a special election in 2017. The current leadership of the organization could not be reached for comment.
Shealy is proud of her record and says it has allowed her to gain the support of a broad range of elected officials — including conservative fellow state senators like Josh Kimbrell and Shane Martin, state Attorney General Alan Wilson and U.S. Sen. Tim Scott.
She has several legislative proposals that she hopes to continue working on if re-elected, including a bill on domestic violence. But she knows there will be a renewed push for banning abortions from the outset of pregnancy.
“We’re getting over the top here with what we’re doing to women,” Shealy said.
On his website, Kennedy lists a typical list of Republican priorities — business friendly policies, backing law enforcement, defending gun rights, securing the border. But he thinks his outsider status will help shake things up.
In his campaign, Kennedy has emphasized his long family history with Lexington County. His website includes a whole page laying out his family history in the area back to 1750 and highlights the next generation of his family — Kennedy and his wife are expecting their first child.
“With a baby on the way, the stakes for me are personally higher than ever,” his website reads. “I’m running to safeguard the freedoms and rights we cherish today for the sake of our unborn child and all future generations.”
Shealy has far outraised Kennedy, with over $200,000 total as of a pre-primary election filing. Kennedy raised almost $22,000, and took out a $50,000 bank loan as well as loaning the campaign almost $10,000 of his personal funds.
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