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The primary and general elections of 2024 were bloodbaths for incumbent South Carolina state senators – and a rash of resignations further fueled the wave of change. All told, thirteen of the chamber’s 46 members are gone – meaning nearly one-third of the S.C. Senate has been replaced.
That’s historic turnover, people… with the supermajority GOP getting the better of it.
While the 13 new senators will take their oaths of office early next month ahead of an organizational session at the S.C. State House in Columbia, one soon-to-be former senator is making sure her voice will continue to be heard.
S.C. senator Katrina Shealy – who was defeated in the June 2024 GOP primary election – is one of five so-called “sister senators” who gained national attention for opposing the Palmetto State’s latest abortion compromise. Shealy and two of her GOP colleagues – Sandy Senn and Penry Gustafson – lost their seats over this issue.
In the aftermath of her defeat, Shealy has launched a political blog entitled ‘While I Breathe,’ which promises to bring its readers “the good, the bad and the really ugly of South Carolina politics.” The name of the site is a play on the Palmetto State’s primary motto, Dum spiro spero (Latin for “while I breathe, I hope”).
In her first series of posts, Shealy has taken direct aim at the new GOP supermajority… which according to her is going to be less effective than the current supermajority because it is “too heavy” with Republican members.
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“There will be no legislating,” Shealy warned in her latest offering. “There will be no seeing the good and bad of an issue. The insane will now run the asylum and those who are good and honest will not have the power or the will to stop them.”
Shealy also blasted members of the state’s Freedom Caucus – a group of conservative lawmakers which decisively defeated the GOP establishment in S.C. House earlier this year and appears on the verge of establishing itself as a force to be reckoned with in the Senate.
“Go back to 1920,” Shealy wrote. “I will not and I will fight for women, young girls, children families, veterans, the disabled, and the elderly and I don’t need to be an active senator to do that.”
Shealy also blasted state representative RJ May III, a former Freedom Caucus leader who is currently under federal investigation for alleged child exploitation, as well as the man who defeated her in June, Carlisle Kennedy – the son of former state representative Ralph Kennedy.
“I did not vote for a (South Carolina) guy being investigated for child pornography and human trafficking and trying to pick up pre-pubescent young girls online,” she wrote. “I did not vote for the frat boy who ran against me just so he could get a title and the have his most recent law partner run for a judgeship while he and his dad spread lies about a very fine man. It’s all in knowing what goes on behind the curtain.”
While much of Shealy’s content appears to be focused on score-settling – including callouts of former SCGOP officials and senatorial colleagues who opposed her candidacy – she does occasionally veer into sometimes thoughtful discussion of the prevailing issues of the day.
Occasionally…
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In one post, Shealy referenced current GOP values as “night soil” – or human excrement – claiming the party had “moved into extremism.”
“It is true Democrats and the far left (have) forced the political pendulum to swing wide right,” Shealy wrote. “Their policies and ideologies represent precisely what the Founders were trying to prevent. But no one, especially the Republican Party, is limiting how far that pendulum is going.”
In the same post, Shealy referenced the recent controversy stoked by outgoing president Joe Biden – who referred to supporters of U.S. president-elect Donald Trump as “garbage.”
“The Republican rank and file is populated by millions – scores of millions – of good, freedom loving Americans,” Shealy wrote. “They aren’t racists, sexists or deplorable and they sure as hell aren’t garbage. God bless them for they truly have the country’s best interest at heart. Although the Grand Old Party on the national and state levels is not the neo-Nazi faction portrayed by Democrats and their far left fellow travelers, the Republican leadership and the opportunists within have only themselves to blame for creating an ideological persona so easily compared.”
So… not “literally Hitler,” but…
Speaking of having “only themselves to blame,” I believe Shealy and her fellow GOP sister senators would be wise to self-reflect on that language – and recognize the starring role their own decisions played in their electoral defeats. The party of Trump may have moved to the left on the issue of abortion, but Republican primary voters in bright red South Carolina Senate districts have not. Failing to recognize and adhere to the will of their constituents faithfully on this issue – principled or not – was a major strategic miscalculation on the part of Shealy and her colleagues, one which cost them their jobs.
Nonetheless, anyone who knows Shealy personally knows she is not going away… gently or in any other form or fashion. And should she decide to focus her website on substantive policy discussion as opposed to vindictive clapbacks, who knows what sort of future influence she could wield?
After all, political blogs in the Palmetto State have a storied history of outgrowing their humble roots…
BANNER: Travis Bell Columbia SC Photographers
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR …
Will Folks is the founding editor of the news outlet you are currently reading. Prior to founding FITSNews, he served as press secretary to the governor of South Carolina. He lives in the Midlands region of the state with his wife and seven children.
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6 comments
Senator Shealy(rather former senator), I know you read this news outlet. Your ego will most surely force you to read this particular piece about you. From voters in 23 and many in SC go away. Go retire, play with your donkeys, get drunk, do something else. You lost because you have turned into nothing more than a bitter, man hating feminist old nag. Your support of the choice to slaughter an unborn child, supporting democrats and their liberal agenda has been duly noted. You lost your way and became what you are. It is your own fault mostly due to your ego. You have done what so many other politicians have also done. You started with good intent, then you turned. Personally I think it was due to power and craving attention and praise from so many. You showed your hand. Bye Felecia.
Great assessment as always, jbl1a! As a caregiver to family and friends who suffered with Alzheimer’s/dementia, she really should focus on being there for her husband in his time of need. I see her ventures as a means or excuse to shirk her duties to him. Hopefully, she embraces these duties so that one day she does not wake up with many regrets for not being there for her partner in his time of need.
What many articles have missed, is that Katrina and the other nags, like Penry and Sandy; also lost votes by playing stupid games with citizens over Constitutional Carry and/or other similar issues. Hopefully they all spend some of their newly-earned free time, contemplating how their voters are not as dumb as they thought them to be.
In time, fortune and fame may smile upon Katrina, again. For years now, Hollywood seems to have run out of new ideas and movie “remakes” have been a big thing. If Katrina continues to nurse and cultivate that bitter personality of hers; perhaps one day a Hollywood talent scout will knock on her door. Imagine the talent scout’s joy at finding the perfect replacement for Anne Ramsey’s character in a remake of “Throw Momma From The Train”!
From what I have heard she seems to have shirked her responsibility as a care-giving wife choosing instead to put her husband in a care facility. True? or not who knows. Really hope she reads this cause she knows who I am. My biggest problem with Shealy was she would vote year in and out for wasteful budgets, earmarks, foolish spending and never regret or challenge it. All the while claiming financial conservatism. And Penry is just really stupid. Ding Dong the wicked witches are gone….
Jbl1a, amen! Also, this man-hating hag believed we could never have enough government in our personal lives. One of her most ridiculous propositions was trying to create a law that would make a CDV level offense for kids in middle and high school. The dumb “it’s for the wimmin and the chirren” ideas just never ended, in her world.
Wow.
that one scruffy looking Senator needs a haircut and to shave pronto. elected officials should not look homeless when they live off the taxpayers.