Lexington County incumbent Shealy loses runoff for state Senate seat
District 23 will have a new senator. Twelve-year incumbent state Sen. Katrina Shealy lost to her opponent Carlisle Kennedy.
Shealy conceded early Tuesday night with one-third of the precincts reporting, favoring Kennedy.
“I’m actually better off. But the people of South Carolina that really need me, the disabled community, the veterans, the children... and the women,” Shealy told the crowd as one women yelled out the women as well. “But this ain’t the last you’ve seen of me.”
Shealy said she called Kennedy and left a voice message congratulating him.
“There’s not a lot I can say, because he did run a nasty campaign,” Shealy said. “They did lie. I didn’t say that in the voice message. I could have, but I didn’t because that would be a vindictive voicemail. But, you know, I congratulated.”
“There is no pathway to victory,” she said about her decision to concede.
Kennedy led with 62.47% of the vote. Shealy had 37.53% with all precincts counted.
Overall, turnout in the state was 5.84%, and Lexington County voter turnout was 9.14%, with 12,518 votes cast.
Kennedy did not respond to call or text messages from The State.
There are no Democrats running for the seat.
As chairman of the Family and Veterans’ Services Committee in Senate, Shealy has been widely viewed as an institutional figure in SC politics. Her re-election put her in a precarious situation, along with two other Republican women senators surrounding one issue; abortion.
The sister senators, a trio of Republican women who blocked a near total abortion ban from passing the Senate were threatened with being ousted after their decision to filibuster in 2023. Republican Sen. Penry Gustafson, a first term senator, was crushed by her opponent Allen Blackmon in the primaries who won the race with 82% of the vote. Republican Sen. Sandy Senn lost by 33 votes after a recount to her opponent Matt Leber.
After results started to come in, Shealy said abortion was ultimately what knocked her out.
Warren endorsed Kennedy on Facebook the day after the primaries, June 12, asking his voters to “anoint Mr. Carlisle Kennedy, his precious family, and all of the Republicans of Lexington County.”
Shealy said that Warrens voter’s probably did come out and vote because he said to.
“I had hoped that my people, you know, some of the people we got to go out and vote would have made a difference. But I don’t know. I just don’t know,” Shealy said.
Before results came in, Shealy emphasized that she and the sister senators stood up for women everywhere.
“It’s a shame what they’ve done to the other women in the senate. I just hate the fact that it’s come to this where we aren’t going to have as many women,” Shealy said.
Shealy said that she wouldn’t run for state senate again. But she may consider other races.
“Gubernatorial run or a congressional run, or a U.S. Senate run or something. But I’m not running for South Carolina state senate again, because it takes a long time to get seniority in the Senate.”
For now, her and her family will spend time together. Shealy said she’s staying committed to working on bettering the community still, and mentioned continuing to invest in work for children, veterans and Alzheimer’s research at USC.
“It’s like my grandson said, he gets his memaw back, and you know, I get my grandkids back, and I can go spend time with them. And I’m gonna enjoy it,” Shealy said.
In her speech to her supporters, family and friends, she said she still believed in what she voted for, and a fire has been started in her. She said there would continue to be negative and nasty mail like what lead up to the election.
“That fire is tough when you make me mad,” Shealy told the crowd. “You get that Shealy look, and it’s not a good look.”
“When you have two senators and a House member that you know, that have been out there working really hard to get rid of you, and this was their main goal to see if they could get rid of all the Republican females in the in the Senate. Yeah, there’s something wrong with that. That’s a sad, you know, state for South Carolina, and so I hope they feel good about themselves,” Shealy said.
