Richland Sen. Mia McLeod says she’s leaving the SC Democratic Party
South Carolina Sen. Mia McLeod, who ran unsuccessfully for governor in 2022, announced in an email to supporters Tuesday that she’s leaving the S.C. Democratic Party, saying, in part, the party “no longer espouses the values” she and her constituents care about.
“I want you to be the first to know that my decision isn’t meant to disparage anyone who identifies as a South Carolina Democrat, but the SCDP’s ‘party-focused’ approach doesn’t work for the people,” McLeod wrote Tuesday, the first day of the South Carolina legislative session.
“And if it doesn’t work for you, it doesn’t work for me,” she added.
McLeod, who was the first Black woman to run for governor in South Carolina, declined to answer reporters’ questions Tuesday, saying “the statement spells it out.” Senate Minority Leader Brad Hutto, D-Orangeburg, said Tuesday he doesn’t anticipate any changes to McLeod’s membership in the Senate Democratic Caucus, noting she still sees “eye-to-eye” on almost every issue.
Trav Robertson, chairman of the South Carolina Democratic Party, said Tuesday, “As someone who worked night and day in 2016 to help get Sen. McLeod elected in a ground-breaking election, I was very proud of that work (that) we did in 2016. She is a wonderful human being, an inspiration to a lot of people in this state, and we wish her nothing but the best in her future endeavors.”
House Minority Leader Todd Rutherford on Tuesday took his remarks one step further, telling reporters McLeod should step down and run as an independent.
“I think that she was going to have several opponents anyway, and that may be why she has decided to do this, to try and bow out gracefully,” the Richland Democrat said. “But it’s not gracefully when you are a South Carolina senator, you’ve been in that position for years, you were a representative, and so all of those things that she complained in her letter, are her. She was the one that wasn’t doing what she was supposed to be doing, so don’t blame that on the Democratic Party and Democrats as a whole.”
McLeod was first elected to the state Senate in 2016 to represent parts of Richland County. She was last reelected to the upper chamber in November 2020 with 62% of the vote.
The Richland senator ran and lost in the June 2022 primary for governor by 25 points to Democrat Joe Cunningham, who was able to out fundraise her. Cunningham went on to lose to Republican Gov. Henry McMaster in November by nearly 18 points.
“I’ve considered Mia a friend for nearly 15 years. But this is nothing more than sour grapes and it only helps Republicans,” Tyler Jones, Cunningham’s campaign general consultant, tweeted after McLeod’s news. “Who is your beef with & why? The SCDP for not handing you the nomination or for not rigging it in your favor? The voters for picking the other guy by 25 pts?”
In her statement Tuesday, titled, “New Year, New Direction!” McLeod criticized the party, arguing leaders have not made “any significant changes” or won a governor’s race in 20 years.
Democrats, which last won the governor’s office in 1998 with Jim Hodges, have not won statewide since 2006.
“By not engaging, enlightening or expanding the electorate,” and “refusing” to publicize the June primary, McLeod alleged, as a result the party lost a handful of Black House legislators, many of whom were women. State Reps. Kimberly Johnson, Chardale Murray, Anne Parks and Krystle Matthews, all lost their races.
Referring to a recent party email calling Black voters the “backbone” of the S.C. Democratic Party, McLeod said the line, “makes me cringe because I’ve experienced first-hand how the party treats Black voters and Black women who run statewide.”
In her run for governor, McLeod pitched that voters should elect a different kind of candidate after a number of white Democratic men had run for governor and lost.
“If the definition of insanity is doing the same thing year after year, election after election, and expecting a different result, then the S.C. Democratic Party is the poster child for what a losing strategy on repeat looks like,” McLeod said.
Tameika Isaac Devine, a former Columbia City Council member and mayoral candidate, said Tuesday she was disappointed by McLeod’s decision to leave the party, but wasn’t surprised by the senator’s choice.
Devine said there’s concern whether the party supports all types of candidates. She also noted McLeod’s frustration over the lack of debates before the primary. Cunningham and McLeod only debated once, taking place the Friday before the primary election.
Devine said more diversity is needed in party leadership.
“We need women at the table to make decisions,” Isaac Devine said.
Brandon Upson, chair of the South Carolina Democratic Party’s Black Caucus, told The State newspaper Tuesday he knew McLeod had contemplated leaving the party and tried to find a remedy for her to stay.
“At the end of the day, look at what happened this last year in the entire midterm process,” Upson said, referring to the House losses. “We have to do better at supporting Black women candidates, elected officials and activists across this state, both inside our party and outside of our party. It’s just something that’s pervasive, and we just have to do better.”
Upson, who said he still is considering whether to run for party chairman until after the Democratic National Committee makes a decision whether South Carolina will go first on the primary calendar, added McLeod’s exit “absolutely” motivates him to run more.
Robertson declined to comment on the chairman race until after the DNC vote in February.
Rutherford said Tuesday he has full faith in Robertson as chair, and wants him run again.
What happened in the 2022 midterms has “nothing to do with him,” Rutherford said of Robertson. “We were involved in all of those races trying to motivate people to do more than what they were doing.”
Senior editor Maayan Schechter contributed to the report.
This story was originally published January 10, 2023 at 9:55 AM.
