SC Gov. McMaster loses 2 nominees for Cabinet posts as candidates withdraw
Gov. Henry McMaster’s nominee to lead a state agency charged with overseeing veterans issues withdrew his nomination Thursday after Senate staffers found a decades-old state statute that bars lawmakers from running state agencies created while they served their term.
And the governor will have to select another nominee to lead the state’s public safety agency after his pick, North Charleston Police chief Reggie Burgess, asked that his name also be pulled.
In a statement on Thursday, the governor’s office said that freshman Rep. Bobby Cox, R-Greenville, would make an “exceptional” secretary of the state’s new Department of Veterans’ Affairs, but “because of a technicality,” Cox asked that his name be withdrawn “so that a secretary can be confirmed without delay and get to work for our state’s veterans,” said McMaster spokesman Brian Symmes.
That “technicality” is a 1937-era law that bars members of the Legislature from serving as the head of a state agency if that agency was created during the time the lawmaker was elected to serve in the General Assembly. The code was last amended in 1967.
“The governor and his staff have apologized to Representative Cox for not catching this issue during the selection process,” Symmes said in a statement. “The governor will submit a nomination to the Senate in the near future.”
Cox was originally scheduled to have his first confirmation hearing Wednesday before the Senate’s Family and Veterans’ Services Committee.
State Sen. Katrina Shealy, chairwoman of that committee, called the circumstance “disappointing.”
“He was very qualified,” said Shealy, R-Lexington. “We wish the Governor’s Office had vetted it before we got it. I feel bad for Rep. Cox, because he was prepared to go forward. They (the Governor’s Office) just have to start the search over again.”
Cox told The State he intends to run again for his District 21 seat in November.
The governor nominated Cox last year to lead the new South Carolina Department of Veterans’ Affairs, an agency created last year. At the time, McMaster called Cox a “real leader, a man of the highest moral integrity and character.” And in his State of the State address last week, McMaster gave a shout out to Cox and his family.
Cox, 39, is a combat veteran who served four tours in Iraq as an Army Ranger. He was on active duty from 2002 to 2015, and currently serves as a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army Reserve. Cox has been awarded numerous service medals, including the Bronze Star.
Elected in 2018 to the state House, Cox also works as director of government strategy for firearms maker SIG SAUER. Soon after being sworn in earlier this year, he announced he was donating his legislative salary to Upstate Warrior Solution, a nonprofit group that connects veterans to resources. Cox had pledged to give the salary to the group during his campaign.
Cox is a 2002 graduate of The Citadel, where he served as Cadet Regimental Commander in charge of all students. He has graduate degrees from George Washington University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
In his withdrawal letter provided to The State, Cox said he made the decision to withdraw his name after “prayerful consideration and discussion with my wife Joscelyn, and with great respect for the rule of law.”
“South Carolina veterans are the heartbeat of our state,” Cox’s letter said. “They deserve the very best and they need leadership now. I hope and pray that whomever you choose to lead the agency will do everything in his or her power to help our veterans succeed. I stand willing and ready to be a tireless advocate for them in the State House.”
Public Safety chief pick asks to have nomination pulled
North Charleston Police chief Reggie Burgess asked the governor on Wednesday that his name be removed to lead the South Carolina Department of Public Safety, saying in a letter to McMaster the process has taken an emotional toll on his family.
“They have always wholeheartedly and unconditionally supported my career in law enforcement, and I believe that in this case, I must support them and place them first,” Burgess wrote in his letter to the governor. “I respectfully requested that my nomination be withdrawn.”
The news was first reported by the Post and Courier.
Unlike Cox, Burgess, 54, got a Senate hearing. But it was delayed after senators spent nearly an hour behind closed doors questioning him over old unpaid taxes. Should Burgess have been confirmed by the Senate, he would have succeeded director Leroy Smith, who is stepping down when his term ends in February.
“Chief Burgess has dedicated his life to serving South Carolinians as a law enforcement officer and has an astounding body of work to show for it,” McMaster said. “Most importantly, he’s a great man who has proven he has the qualities that would have made him a transformational leader at the Department of Public Safety. That he is prioritizing his family over his nomination to lead the agency says all anyone needs to know about Chief Burgess, and I find great comfort in knowing that he’s not going far and will continue to serve our people through his leadership at the North Charleston Police Department.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
This story was originally published January 30, 2020 at 1:05 PM.
