There will be major changes next year in the South Carolina State House of Representatives. As we mentioned a couple of weeks ago, Majority Leader Gary Simrill and Speaker of the House Jay Lucas decided to not run for re-election. This week brought more clarity as others in the SC House decided against seeking another term in office.
Locally, Representatives Joe Daning and William Cogswell opted to not seek re-election in November. Both elected leaders have been advocates for the work our Chamber does and will be sorely missed in the General Assembly. We look forward to giving both a big thank you later this year at the State Delegation Event. We hope you will join us.
In total, 13 SC House members decided against seeking re-election. In addition to Lucas, Simrill, Daning and Cogswell, Representative Bruce Bryant of York, Representative Russell Fry of Horry (who is running for the 7th Congressional Seat), Representative Jerry Govan of Orangeburg (who is running for State Superintendent of Education), Representative Jonathon Hill of Anderson, Representative Chip Huggins of Lexington, Representative Sandy McGarry of Lancaster, Representative Steve Moss of Cherokee, representative Leola Robinson of Greenville and Representative Garry Smith of Greenville will not seek another term. There will be plenty of new faces in Columbia next year.
In other election news, Mike Reichenbach of Florence won the special election on Tuesday to fill the vacated seat of the late Senator Hugh Leatherman. Reichenbach bested democratic candidate Suzanne La Rochelle. Senator-elect Reichenbach will be sworn in at 2 p.m. on Tuesday on the Senate floor.
Finally, next week is crossover week so we expect to see a lot of floor action in both the House and Senate as they race to get their bills out of their chambers in order to meet the crossover deadline Thursday evening. Legislation that doesn’t pass either the House or Senate next week is for all intents and purposes dead for the year.
