FLORENCE — The race to fill the Senate seat vacated by the death of Hugh Leatherman pits a state House member against a Florence businessman.
Rep. Jay Jordan and political newcomer Mike Reichenbach will square off Jan. 25 for the Republican nomination to fill the Florence-based Senate seat Leatherman held for 41 years.
Leatherman, a Pee Dee stalwart with immense influence over economic decisions statewide, died at home last month at age 90 of inoperable cancer. As the politician who controlled the state’s purse strings for two decades, the Senate Finance chairman was the most powerful lawmaker in the Statehouse.
But that power left with him. Whoever wins his seat will enter the Senate, where leadership roles are based on seniority, on the lowest rung of the chamber’s 46-step ladder.
Jordan, who first won his House seat in a 2015 special election, said that’s why the next senator for District 31 needs Statehouse experience.
“Whoever comes next will obviously be the 46th senator, but you’re the senator coming behind Leatherman,” he said. “I fundamentally believe it will require someone who understands the process and has relationships in the Statehouse in order to best represent Florence.”
The 41-year-old Florence native, born months before Leatherman’s first Senate win, has risen quickly in the ranks in the House, where seniority isn’t the deciding factor.
The attorney sits on the House Judiciary Committee, which vets a good chunk of all bills filed. As election laws subcommittee chairman, Jordan led the chamber’s decennial, post-census redistricting process to redraw the district boundaries of state and U.S. House districts to align with population changes. Last year, he became chairman of the House Ethics Committee, which oversees the campaign filings of House members and candidates.
“Filling those shoes is impossible,” Jordan said, referring to Leatherman.
Representing the Pee Dee following the loss of its biggest advocate is “going to take a team effort,” he continued. “While I’m a brand-new senator, I’ve shown I can get legislation through the process. I’ve put in the work and shown my ‘yes’ is a ‘yes,’ and ‘no’ is a ‘no.’ It’s starting over, but not from scratch.”
He paints a stark contrast with his opponent’s lack of political experience, without taking a dig at him directly.
Similarly, Reichenbach touts his background as the owner of three car dealerships, saying “there just aren’t enough business owners running the show in Columbia.” And the Ohio native, who moved to Florence in 2008, touts his status as a “political outsider.”
Florence businessman Mike Reichenbach announced Tuesday, Nov. 23, 2021, that he’s running to fill the state Senate seat vacated by the death of Finance Committee Chairman Hugh Leatherman. Provided
Reichenbach, 50, was the first to announce his bid for the seat Nov. 23, days after Leatherman’s funeral. Jordan followed with his announcement a week later.
More were expected to join the fray for a seat wide open for the first time in four decades. But the Dec. 11 filing deadline ended with just two Republicans and one Democrat in the mix, ending any possibility of a Feb. 8 runoff.
Jordan acknowledged the difficulties of campaigning over the holidays, as grabbing voters’ attention for a special election is difficult enough without several holidays thrown into the already short time frame.
“You have to be mindful and respectful of the season, but I think you can’t stop, except we’ll take a break, obviously, for Christmas,” he said.
On the plus side, he added, “it will all be over on Jan. 26. … Jan. 25 will be here before you know it.”
The winner of the Jan. 25 GOP primary will face Democrat Suzanne La Rochelle in the special election March 29. La Rochelle, a licensed social worker, is running on a platform of improving mental health care across the state. The activist helped found the progressive political group Action Together — Pee Dee following the 2016 presidential election.
All three call the city of Florence home.
The district has turned solidly red since 1995, when Leatherman switched parties following the GOP takeover of the state House.
It includes most of Florence County and a piece of rural Darlington County. Whoever wins the special election would face reelection in 2024 under new voting maps signed into law earlier this month, which puts the district entirely in Florence County. Areas of the county still outside the reconfigured district will include Lake City and, perhaps ironically, Quinby, where Leatherman got his political start on Town Council in 1967.
The voter registration deadline for voting in the GOP primary is Dec. 26. Since that’s a Sunday, mail-in forms postmarked Dec. 27 will be accepted.
Follow Seanna Adcox on Twitter at @seannaadcox_pc.
