Father-daughter political duo highlights family tradition in the SC State House
South Carolina state Sen. Kevin L. Johnson always figured his eldest child, Kimberly, would become a public servant.
It started in high school, Johnson said, when his daughter was handed a partial athletic scholarship to play basketball at Benedict College, a historically Black university near downtown Columbia. But she turned it down, deciding instead to enlist in the United States Army.
“I knew all along she would be a public servant,” Johnson said by phone. “I just didn’t know she was going to be an elected official.”
Neither did Kimberly, director of community engagement at HopeHealth, a doctor and primary care network health center — at first.
It took calls from her predecessor, now retired Democratic Rep. Robert Ridgeway, and prodding from other community members she called to run for his Clarendon County House seat. Eventually, prayer and talks with her employer pushed her to run, she told The State.
In January, Kimberly O. Johnson will take her seat inside the House chamber with 123 other members for the start of her first two-year legislative work session. And across the South Carolina Capitol, 46 senators also will join their colleagues for another four years.
One is her father, state Sen. Johnson.
South Carolina has a rich history in legacy public service. Parents have served with their children, sometimes in the same years and even in the same chambers. Brothers have served together, only a few desks apart. And, oftentimes in South Carolina politics, family members will succeed one another or find their place in the state Capitol and same chamber years later.
They include the late House Rep. Moffatt Burriss and his son, John Hay Burriss, and mother-and-son duo, former state Reps. Lucille S. Whipper and Seth Whipper. There was former Aiken House Rep. Roland Smith, who served not only in the House but on the Ways and Means Committee at the same time as his son, current House Rep. Garry Smith of Greenville. Former House Rep. Dan Hamilton and his father, Glenn Hamilton, shared the same Greenville House seat, and former House Rep. Billy Keyserling, who held the same seat as his mother, the late Rep. Harriet Hirschfeld Keyserling.
State Rep. Russell Ott, of Calhoun County, holds the same House seat as his father, former state Rep. Harry Ott, did. So in a way does House Majority Leader Gary Simrill, whose York County district includes the same area his father, the late T. Hugh Simrill Jr., served while in the House. And former state Rep. Con Chellis briefly held the same Dorchester House seat his father, Converse Chellis III, did.
In the state Senate, there was the late Sen. Tom Turnipseed and his brother, the late Sen. David Turnipseed, and father-daughter duo, the late former state Sen. Ryan Shealy, who was joined in the chamber by his daughter, former state Sen. Sherry Shealy Martschink.
Senate President Harvey Peeler, R-Cherokee, at one point shared the chamber with his brother, former Lt. Gov. Bob Peeler.
State Sen. Thomas McElveen’s father, former city of Sumter Mayor Joe McElveen, served in the state House.
State Schools superintendent Molly Spearman held the same House seat her late father, Rudolph Mitchell, once did.
Former state Sen. Vincent Sheheen’s uncle Bob Sheheen spent years in the House and as House speaker. Sheheen succeeded his uncle’s Kershaw County district seat in the House before serving in the state Senate for more than a decade.
And former state Sen. Paul Thurmond served in the same chamber as his father, the late U.S. Sen. Strom Thurmond, did decades ago.
The list is far from exhaustive.
“It can be somewhat of a family business, but more often than not it’s not a family business,” said former state Sen. Joel Lourie, who served 18 years in the state Legislature and whose father, the late Sen. Isadore Lourie, served in the Legislature from 1965-1992, both representing Richland County.
“If you look at people serving in the Legislature, probably 90% of them are first generation legislators. I grew up, from the time I was old enough to walk, knowing I always felt like politics was the way to solve problems. (Seeing my dad) had a profound impact on my interest in public service and politics.”
It’s no different, Rep. Ott said, with legacy lawyers or doctors or other professions.
“I don’t know that it’s (State House) necessarily that different from other professions. I watched my dad get involved in public service, and he and my mother tried to instill in my brother and I that service was important,” said Ott, who succeeded his father in the House. “Certainly it was something I was very interested in at a young age.”
Public service was ‘what we did’
State Sen. Johnson said this week he does not think it has sunk in yet that he will be serving at the same time as his daughter.
“I’m very proud of her and am very proud she was able to get the support she received,” Johnson said. “It is a bonus.”
As a father and a seasoned lawmaker, Johnson said he also has not tried to offer his eldest child too much advice, adding that oftentimes people learn better on their own. But on the contrary, Kimberly said her father has offered plenty of advice since she and her two younger siblings, Kenneth and Kyndra, were children.
“Oh yeah, growing up, he always told us that people are watching and this was before he got into the spotlight,” she said. “He always told us to watch the company you keep and the crowds you’re around.”
The Johnson name has been rooted in Clarendon County politics and public service for years.
A state senator since 2013 and a short-term House member briefly before, the elder Johnson served on the Clarendon County School District Two and Manning City Council, eventually becoming mayor in 2000, holding that position for about a decade.
House Rep. Johnson also served as chair on the local school board, serving for a few years as the regional director for the South Carolina School Board Association. She also spent a few years at the helm of the Clarendon County Chamber of Commerce.
Her brother, Kenneth, works in security for the S.C. House Sergeant at Arms Office and her sister, Kyndra, is a school district social worker.
“They (my parents, Kevin and Gloria Johnson) didn’t say much about public service. It was just what we did,” Kimberly said.
Both lawmakers have a lot in common. They live about five minutes apart in Manning and their districts will overlap, meaning one lawmaker’s constituent problem is the other’s problem. They have briefly talked about what happens if they disagree, though Rep. Johnson said she didn’t foresee that happening a lot.
“I feel pretty sure 98% of the time we’ll be in agreement,” she said. “But there’s always that 2% of the time when you don’t agree with your parent or your child.”
Johnson said he doesn’t foresee being that total dad in the workplace. And Rep. Johnson said she doesn’t expect that either.
But just in case they need an intermediary, there’s always Kenneth, Rep. Johnson’s brother, born 10 months apart.
“He’s one of my favorite people,” Kimberly said of her brother. “We joined the military together. We built our first homes across from each other in the same subdivision. We did our senior trips together. We did ROTC in high school together. We did everything together.”
He is still her younger brother though, Rep. Johnson acknowledged.
“My first day at orientation, we normally hug when we see each other. And I was going into a committee meeting, and I said, ‘Is it OK to hug you in front of your coworkers?’ ” she said. “He said, ‘Maybe after the meeting when people leave.’ ”
