House Speaker Jay Lucas won’t run for 2022 reelection, second major SC legislative shakeup
The most powerful Republican in the South Carolina House will not seek reelection in 2022, he announced Tuesday, making his departure the second major shakeup to hit the Legislature’s lower chamber this month.
“I intended for you to be the first to know about my time frame and how it affects this body. That’s why I’m announcing that I’m not seeking another term in the South Carolina House of Representatives,” an emotional House Speaker Jay Lucas, R-Darlington, said in an address from the floor to his colleagues.
“In another speech on a different day, I will speak to how much all of you mean to me, how much I love you, say my goodbyes, my thank yous,” he said.
The speaker’s retirement, on top of news first reported by The State last week that House Majority Gary Simrill, R-York, also will retire after 30 years, opens up two prominent and influential leadership positions in the South Carolina House.
It will spark what could arguably be one of the most monumental domino effects in the House since former Republican House Speaker Bobby Harrell, R-Charleston, was indicted in 2014 on misconduct charges.
Lucas, 64, is currently in his fourth term as House speaker, last elected by the body in 2020. The Hartsville attorney first became speaker temporarily in 2014 after Harrell pleaded guilty to spending violations and left office. Soon after, he was elected to the job full time, becoming the first speaker to serve in the role from Darlington County.
Lucas, a graduate of the University of South Carolina, was first elected to the House in 1998 and has served in the chamber for 24 years.
Gov. Henry McMaster, who said he’s been fortunate to call Lucas a friend and has enjoyed a close working relationship with the House, said Lucas’ leadership helped produce “unprecedented growth and prosperity” for South Carolinians and the state.
“I will miss all of you in countless ways,” Lucas said in his speech. “I can only hope that each of you believes that I’ve been a worthy servant of this chamber and worthy of the job you have so graciously bestowed upon me.”
Who will be the next House speaker?
Just minutes after Lucas ended his remarks Tuesday to applause and hugs, the whipping had begun for the next speaker, with members walking throughout the chamber with tally sheets.
No one raised their hand, but one name was mentioned out loud multiple times: House Budget Chairman Murrell Smith, R-Sumter, a close friend and confidant of Lucas’.
“We’re going to see where it is,” Smith told reporters of the whip count. “I have a very good job right now, and I’m honored to be Ways and Means chairman and we still have a speaker, so we’ll see how that progresses.”
Outgoing Republican House Leader Simrill and House Minority Leader Todd Rutherford, however, said the job is his.
“Murrell will be the next speaker. Murrell’s going to be the next speaker,” Rutherford, D-Richland, repeated twice to reporters Tuesday, confident Smith will have backing from Democrats when the vote comes.
He continued, “Murrell has always had the right attitude about it, and he listens to people and he’ll be honest with people and tell them, ‘No.’ He told me no today. But he’ll also tell you how he thinks you can strategize to get what you want, and how he’s going to help you or he’s going to try and make sure that your bill doesn’t pass.”
The House speaker wears many hats, charged in large part with setting the agenda for the chamber and deciding which legislation takes priority. But the speaker also decides who gets to sit on which committee and where bills go, sometimes determining whether the legislation lives or dies.
“I think Murrell Smith should be and could be the next speaker of the House, and I think that will happen,” Simrill told The State. “He has proven himself to be a stalwart leader on the budget side. For our group, the small group that came in and was in the office (Suite 420 in the Blatt building) together, to see what has come of that group of malcontents and we’ve grown into those positions, and I look at Murrell Smith as being a part of that group. His leadership, which he has shown time and time again, what he can do. He’s a natural fit.”
Lucas to leave after 24 years
Lucas’ announcement, or at the very least the timing of it, on Tuesday came as a surprise to some of his colleagues, including Smith, he said.
“He’s brought us through a tumultuous time, has led with honor and dignity and he’s led by building consensus among the body,” Smith said, “and we’ll be forever indebted to him for his service to the state of South Carolina.”
Both rural-area lawyers from small towns, Smith told his colleagues you learn small-town values: listening to people, treating everyone with respect and, more importantly, being humble. As speaker, Lucas did all of those, Smith said.
Harrell, Lucas’ predecessor, often played favorites, could ignore Democrats and wasn’t always receptive to differing opinions, the Associated Press reported. Lucas, on the other hand, built consensus and adopted a more open door approach, his colleagues said.
“He’s been a longtime, consummate public servant,” said state Sen. Gerald Malloy, D-Darlington, who attended law school with Lucas. The two are also friends who coached basketball together. “I think the jury is still out on what his potential is. I think the most important thing in his life right now is he’s become a granddaddy.”
Senate Majority Leader Shane Massey, R-Edgefield, said Tuesday he hated to lose Lucas in the General Assembly, but said he hopes Lucas will continue to serve the state in another capacity.
As speaker, Lucas has steered the House through often difficult, emotional and contentious legislation.
In one example, after the 2015 murders in Charleston of nine Black churchgoers, one of whom was a state senator, Lucas led the House through a bitter battle that eventually resulted in the Confederate flag being removed from the State House grounds at the intersection of Main and Gervais streets.
“He is the reason why the flag came down to a great degree,” said Rutherford, who was elected to the House with Lucas in 1998. “He called me long before the governor ever did and made sure that he had the veto proof majority that we were going to (need to) be able to take the flag down. He saw how important that was to South Carolina. I know he would say that that was probably his most difficult vote, but it was quite an achievement for the people here to not see racism at the front of the Capitol.”
He’s since negotiated legislation to deal with the V.C. Summer nuclear project fallout, and, in 2019, attempted to shepherd a massive, 84-page education proposal through the Legislature that frustrated teachers, who rallied outside the State House against the bill. Though it passed the House and the Senate after a multi-week filibuster, it never became law. Session was cut short because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Since, the bill’s been passed one piece at a time.
Two years ago, Lucas watched as the Republican Party expanded its power, flipping two House seats. And, in the past few weeks, Lucas has witnessed a sometimes divided House unanimously pass tax cut legislation, an election reform bill and come close to nearly unanimously passing a $14 billion budget within a nine-hour floor debate Monday night.
“My time has come when the session ends, it’ll be time for a new chapter to be written for the House,” Lucas said. “I will miss you all so very much. But make no mistake, ... it is time. Thank you all.”
Reporters Emily Bohatch and Joseph Bustos contributed to this report.
This story was originally published March 15, 2022 at 10:55 AM.
