SC down a second ‘sister senator’ as Sandy Senn concedes in GOP primary

Charleston GOP Sen. Sandy Senn conceded to Rep. Matt Leber, of Johns Island, Friday, June 14, 2024, in the state primary election. (File/Mary Ann Chastain/special to SC Daily Gazette)

CHARLESTON — A second of South Carolina’s GOP female senators won’t be returning to the Statehouse come January 2025.

Charleston Sen. Sandy Senn conceded Friday to her Republican primary opponent, Rep. Matt Leber of Johns Island, in a race that got nasty and personal. She trailed by just 33 votes, according to the state Election Commission.

“While losing by a small number of votes was tough, the fact is my competitor only needed to win by one vote to beat me. So, I have congratulated him, profusely thanked my supporters, and even finished cleaning up all the campaign signs already,” Senn wrote in her concession statement.

Senn, first elected in 2016, was among five women in the Senate, calling themselves the “sister senators,” who voted against last year’s six-week abortion ban. They ultimately failed to block the law but were successful in helping defeat a near-total ban passed by House Republicans.

With Sen. Penry Gustafson, R-Camden, losing in her primary race Tuesday, and now Senn officially out after waiving a recount, it all but guarantees a bill to make abortions illegal from the moment a pregnancy is medically detectable will be back on the GOP agenda.

“I stand by all my votes taken in the past eight years, regretting none,” Senn said in her concession statement. “It has been a great honor to serve District 41 and I thank the citizens for giving me that opportunity.”

It’s still possible that all three Republican “sister senators” will end up losing their seats to men.

Sen. Katrina Shealy, the chamber’s only chairwoman, faces a June 25 run-off with Carlisle Kennedy, the son of former state Rep. Ralph Kennedy, after falling shy of the more than 50% margin needed to clench the race.

Shealy, Senn and Gustafson were among five GOP senators who tried during last year’s Senate debate to replace the six-week ban with language that would instead ban abortions after 12 weeks of pregnancy — the first trimester — with certain exceptions. But that attempt failed on a vote of 21-25. At six weeks, most women don’t yet know they’re pregnant.

All of the women’s GOP challengers support a nearly full ban.

The number of women in the upper chamber reached an all-time high of six this year, after Tameika Isaac Devine, D-Columbia, won a special election in January.

But it may shrink back to just two next year, depending on the outcome of Shealy’s June 25 runoff and what happens in November.

Devine easily won her primary Tuesday with 92% of the vote. And Sen. Margie Bright Matthews, D-Walterboro, has no challenger this year from any party.

Beyond Gustafson and Senn losing, the chamber’s Democrat-turned-Independent “sister senator,” Mia McLeod of Columbia, did not seek re-election. There is a Democratic runoff June 25 for her safely Democratic seat. But the only female in Tuesday’s three-way primary lost, placing last with less than 17% of the votes.

South Carolina currently ranks 47th nationwide in the percentage of female legislators, according to Rutgers University’s Center for American Women and Politics. With the Senate losses, South Carolina could reclaim its last-place ranking, which it held for a decade before Shealy first won her seat in 2012. She was the lone female senator until Matthews won a special election in 2015.

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