Want to govern S.C.? Only young need apply
Running for governor is a young man's — or, this year, woman's — game in South Carolina.
S.C. voters have nominated two 30-something candidates for governor, Republican state Rep. Nikki Haley of Lexington County and Democratic state Sen. Vincent Sheheen of Kershaw County. If elected, either would take office before celebrating a 40th birthday.
The Sheheen and Haley candidacies continue a long-standing trend among Palmetto State voters of choosing youthful governors.
Ernest "Fritz" Hollings was just 36 when he was elected governor in 1958, and no S.C. governor elected in the last 15 years – Mark Sanford, Jim Hodges and David Beasley – has been older than 42 when entering the office.
(That's bad news for Morgan Bruce Reeves of Irmo, 51, is also running for governor as an independent and Green Party candidate.)
Observers cite a number of reasons for the youth trend, including an anti-establishment streak among S.C. voters, the Republican Party's rise in the 1980s and '90s, which opened opportunities for more candidates, and the trend toward long service among the state’s members of Congress. (U.S. senators and representatives from South Carolina tend to stay in Congress, winning term after term, rather than risk running for governor, a post limited to two eight-year terms.)
S.C. voters just seem to like newer, more rebellious faces in the Governor's Mansion.
"There has always been an anti-establishment strain in South Carolina that tends to benefit those that are outsiders," said Democratic former Gov. Hodges, who served one term from 1998 to 2002. "The establishment candidate almost never wins."
For example, no S.C. lieutenant governor has won the state's top job since John West in 1970. Hodges also noted that no sitting officeholder has won election as governor since James Edwards in 1974 – a trend that either Haley or Sheheen could break this year. (Both Hodges and Beasley left their legislative seats while running for governor, while others ran for governor after their terms expired.)
Actually holding office is a liability, said GOP political consultant Joshua Gross. It creates a record for opponents to use.
"Anybody with any experience gets picked apart for every vote they take," Gross said, noting that is particularly true in Republican elections. "Because he had done something, he was out."
That pattern has repeated itself: This year Haley, 38, rose from fourth place and knocked off two statewide elected officials on her way to winning the GOP nomination.
In 2002, little-known former U.S. Rep. Mark Sanford of Charleston defeated then-Lt. Gov. Bob Peeler in a runoff for the GOP nomination for governor. In the 2004 U.S. Senate race, U.S. Rep. Jim DeMint of Greenville came from behind to defeat former Gov. Beasley of Society Hill in the GOP runoff, going on to win the general election.
Hodges thinks the Republican Party's political growth in the 1980s and '90s also has played a role in electing youthful governors by opening opportunities for young candidates who, despite their youth, already had become leaders in the party.
"They didn't have a deep bench to run," Hodges said of the GOP. "It gave them a chance, pretty quickly, to run for the top office."
S.C. Democratic Party executive director Jay Parmley said the state's tendency to elect long-serving federal representatives — Hollings and Strom Thurmond in the U.S. Senate, and Floyd Spence in the U.S. House are examples — means the term-limited job of governor is one of the few high-ranking political posts that routinely becomes available.
"It is kind of intriguing," Parmley admitted. "There's not a whole lot of turnover" in DC, but not so in Columbia.
The perceived energy that a younger candidate brings to the office also is a factor with voters.
Democrat Sheheen, 39, says he was aware of the youth trend and it was one reason that he decided to run for governor despite older, more experienced candidates likely entering the race as well. Sheheen thought he could benefit from S.C. voters unhappy after eight years of Sanford.
Sheheen is part of a long-serving S.C. political family – his uncle, Bob, is a former speaker of the S.C. House; his father is a former head of the Commission on Higher Education – but said he looked to S.C. history for his political role models. In particular, he said, governors such as Hollings, Robert McNair and the late Carroll Campbell are an example of how he would lead the state.
Hollings "really changed the model," Sheheen said. "He created the model of a governor responsible for economic development. (Now) it's another transformative time."
While it might seem unusual for Sheheen, a Democrat, to cite Campbell, a Republican, Sheheen said Campbell proved that a governor of one party can work successfully with a Legislature of the opposing party, even if Campbell sometimes battled with his uncle, Bob Sheheen. And, if he wins, Sheheen almost certainly would have to work with a Republican-controlled General Assembly.
Republican Haley says message, not age, is the key to successful candidates.
While she has been close to Sanford, Haley says she has no specific Palmetto State political mentors, instead trying to take the best qualities that she saw in those she worked with.
Pressed, Haley cites former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher as a role model, and Haley uses a Thatcher quote — "If you want something said, ask a man. If you want something done, ask a woman." — on campaign T-shirts. (Haley did not mention Sanford, for whom Haley was a top legislative ally.)
"It's never been about mentors," Haley said, adding — in a shot at Sheheen — "I was just not from a political family."
And that shot could be a sign of things to come.
Hodges said the game plan to win the Governor's Mansion is time-tested.
"The candidate that wins ... is better able to define themselves as anti-establishment," he said, "and better able to define their opponent as a tool of the establishment."