Pawleys Island Democrat announces run for SC party chair

As S.C. Democratic Party chair Jaime Harrison campaigns to head the Democratic National Committee, a Pawleys Island Democrat says she wants the post he could leave behind.

Susan Smith said Wednesday she will run for chair of the S.C. Democratic Party, a post up for grabs at the party’s convention in April. Smith already has the backing of three prominent S.C. Democrats.

Smith would succeed Harrison, who in 2013 became the first African-American chair of the state party and was re-elected in 2015 without opposition. Last month, Harrison said he would run for the DNC’s top post, which Democrats will fill in late February.

He had said he would not seek re-election as state party chair in 2017.

“As DNC chair, I look forward to working with all of our state party chairs, including and especially whomever S.C. Democrats elect,” Harrison said in an emailed statement.

Smith has support from former S.C. Gov. Jim Hodges, state Rep. Gilda Cobb-Hunter of Orangeburg and S.C. House Minority Leader Todd Rutherford of Richland.

Smith is the president of the S.C. Democratic Women’s Council and the Southern regional director of the National Federation of Democratic Women. She was a delegate to the Democratic National Convention in 2008 and 2012.

This story was originally published December 7, 2016 at 4:09 PM with the headline "Pawleys Island Democrat announces run for SC party chair."