SC Pastor Confirms US Senate Interest

A prominent pastor from the Midlands region of South Carolina has confirmed to FITS that he is exploring a bid for the United States Senate.

DeTreville F. Bowers, Jr. – pastor of Christ Church of the Carolinas – did not elaborate on his plans. He merely acknowledged that our recent report about his potential interest in the seat currently held by liberal “Republican” Lindsey Graham was accurate.

“It’s true,” he wrote.

As we noted in our original writeup, Bowers is a native of Estill, S.C. – a former attorney who gave up his day job to earn a Master of Divinity degree from Columbia International University in the mid-1990s. He served as an associate pastor at downtown Columbia, S.C.’s prestigious (and politically connected) First Presbyterian Church prior to becoming the lead pastor at Christ Church.

If Bowers is hoping to sweep the state’s evangelical vote – which Graham has been aggressively courting – he may find the sledding tougher than expected.

Three of the candidates currently in the race – S.C. Sen. Lee Bright (R-Spartanburg), Upstate businessman Richard Cash and Orangeburg attorney Bill Connor – are hard core social conservatives.

A fourth candidate – Lowcountry businesswoman Nancy Mace – is also a Christian, although her campaign has been more focused on fiscal issues.

Graham currently enjoys a massive financial advantage over his rivals – one which has thus far kept national groups eager to oust him on the sidelines in this race.  He’s also spending his money building a center-left army of Democrats and establishment “Republicans” to turn out the vote in this June’s open primary election.