Who’s a true Democrat? Harpootlian and Ott trade barbs in SC Senate primary
.jpg "State Rep. Russell Ott, D-Calhoun, and state Sen. Dick Harpootlian, D-Richland.")
In a race to succeed state Sen. Nikki Setzler in District 26, two Democrats are battling for the party’s nomination in what has become a contentious fight over whether the candidates are effective in the General Assembly and whether either truly holds the party’s values.
State Sen. Dick Harpootlian, of Richland County, who was redrawn into the district with Setzler, is pushing that he is the true Democrat in the race. He serves on the Agriculture and Natural Resources, Veterans and Family Services, Transportation, and Judiciary committees.
State Rep. Russell Ott, of Calhoun County, who represents a rural House district and serves on the House Labor, Commerce and Industry Committee, has argued Harpootlian is ineffective as a lawmaker and that the lawyer-legislator just muddies the waters with half-truths.
The district is a mix of urban areas of Richland and Lexington counties and rural areas of Calhoun County.
According to Dave’s Redistricting, the newly drawn district has a Democratic lean of plus 2.5 percentage points and Black voting age population of 24%.
As of late May, Harpootlian had nearly $234,000 in the bank to lead Ott’s cash on hand of more than $81,000, according to State Ethics Commission filings.
Ott also has gone up on television. So far he has reserved at least $6,200 worth of time on Columbia’s broadcast channels, according to FCC records. Harpootlian has not reserved television time.
Abortion ban votes
The June 11 election won’t be held among the entire electorate. It’s a primary election and voters will most likely be made up of the party faithful, even though the state has an open primary.
Harpootlian has pointed to Ott’s votes before the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade to enact abortion restrictions in the state, including a 2021 vote for the state’s first fetal heartbeat bill, which was struck down by the state Supreme Court.
After the Dobbs decision striking down Roe v. Wade allowing states to determine abortion access, Ott voted against the Fetal Heartbeat bill that was eventually upheld by the state Supreme Court.
When discussing his shift in vote, Ott said he believed the latest version of the fetal heartbeat bill went too far with restrictions and touted how he participated in the Democratic filibuster of the bill, which went late into the evening, but ultimately failed.
He said the latest version of the heartbeat bill had a narrower exception for the life of the mother. The version supported by Ott, and was struck down by the state Supreme Court, had a broader exception for the health of the mother, he said.
“I tried to make it better. Didn’t know if it was the right compromise but at the end of the day, I still do believe that if we’re ever going to be able to get past this issue it’s going to require compromise on both sides,” Ott said.
But Ott points out Harpootlian missed a debate on the heartbeat bill in 2023, which was upheld by the state Supreme Court. That debate in the Senate took place in February 2023 in a Senate chamber with only 15 Democrats and one independent. Harpootlian had an excused absence during the debate because he was in Walterboro as one of Alex Murdaugh’s defense attorneys.
The fetal heartbeat bill passed the chamber in a 28-12 vote.
The trial was initially expected to last only three weeks but extended into six weeks.
“If it had gone three weeks, I most likely would have been back in time for any substantive debate on that bill,” Harpootlian said.
Harpootlian was back in the Senate when the bill was returned from the House with amendments. Harpootlian voted against the bill and joined in efforts to stop the bill, which included a push from the Senate’s five women senators at the time.
“I cheered them on. I was there for the whole thing,” Harpootlian said.
Access to abortion has been a key issue for the Democratic Party and its supporters.
Planned Parenthood Votes South Atlantic, possibly the largest advocate for abortion access, has not endorsed in the District 26 primary race.
“The plan for that one is to wait until after the primary,” said spokeswoman Vicki Ringer. “We generally don’t get involved in (contested) primary races. It just creates more tension between different factions within our organization and within our board members.”
Ott has been hit with voting for the constitutional carry bill, which allowed people to carry a gun without a permit when it left the House, but ultimately against the final version when it allowed 18-year-olds to carry guns. Harpootlian voted against the bill.
“We had continued to look at a lot of different information from across other states across the country and a lot of the statistics and the statistics didn’t show that other states that had implemented this, that they had had spikes or increases in gun violence,” Ott said. “But it’s another issue that keeps coming up that I don’t think necessarily move the state forward, that’s why my focus has always been on things like public education and energy and taxation those issues that I think affect everyone on a day-to-day basis.
“At the end of the day, I just want to make it very clear, I have always supported things like closing the Charleston loophole,” Ott continued. “I don’t think commercial gun sales should be able to be completed until a full and complete background check is finished.”
Ott’s previous votes in favor of permitless carry and in favor of abortion bans has Harpootlian questioning if Ott is really a Democrat.
“I’ve always believed that Democratic Party was a place that anyone and everyone could come and find a home,” Ott said. “The issues that I’ve always cared about seem to line up with the Democratic Party, (such as) public education. That’s what I like talking about.”
Effectiveness in the State House
Ott has argued Harpootlian is not effective in the State House pointing to how the state senator has not introduced a bill that has passed during his time.
According to the state Legislature website, Harpootlian has introduced 40 bills during his six years in the state Senate. None have passed. Ott, who was first elected in 2013, has introduced 58 bills and 10 have passed.
“Dick has never introduced a bill and gotten it passed and I think that speaks volumes,” Ott said. “So I’m in there doing a lot of work that might not make the headlines. But Dick is certainly ready to insert himself on anything that can get him in front of a camera.”
Harpootlian argues he can be effective without having his name on a bill.
He has been vocal in calling for transparency in the Legislature’s earmark process and in the state’s economic development incentives. Harpootlian has sued the Department of Commerce in order to obtain more information about incentive packages and sued bars in Five Points for serving underage drinkers.
Harpootlian also helped on the bipartisan Senate compromise on judicial reform and slowed down the energy bill that moved this year in the House.
“I attempt to reach out and make rational decisions on what I would call the non-primary issues, the ones on either side of the aisle,” Harpootlian said
Both Ott and Harpootlian have hit each other on their opponents’ professions.
Early in the campaign, Harpootlian hit Ott for being paid by the farm bureau, an organization he used to lobby for. Ott has said his activities no longer include lobbying for the organization. As a contract employee, Ott’s role included coordinating a fundraiser for the farm bureau foundation to help pay for scholarships, human resources type work such as writing job descriptions and keeping up with its strategic plan.
Ott has hit Harpootlian on being a lawyer-legislator who is looking to use the position to search for possible avenues for lawsuits to file.
Ott points to how Harpootlian proposed an amendment to the state’s annual budget to require the future Department of Environmental Services alert members of a county’s legislative delegation of any complaints. The amendment did not make it into the spending plan.
However, Ott points to this as Harpootlian getting caught with his “hand in the cookie jar” as a way of using the information to file a lawsuit.
“It was blatantly apparent what was going on and that’s problematic,” Ott said. “That’s just as problematic as being in there and voting, choosing the judges and everything else ... At the end of the day it seems to me like Dick’s solution to whatever issue it is for him, is to sue people.”
Harpootlian rejected the assertion that he would use information he received as a lawmaker to his advantage. He only proposed the provision after learning about four-year-old complaints about environmental issues in his district through media reports.
“It’s constituent services. It’s got nothing to do with making money and matter of fact, if I received that information, I would never bring, if there was a lawsuit, I would have a conflict,” Harpootlian said.
Connecting with Black voters
With the district having a 24% Black voting age population, racial issues have been brought into the primary battle.
Both Ott and Harpootlian have pointed to the endorsements they’ve received from Black leaders. Harpootlian has rolled out endorsements from U.S. Rep. Jim Clyburn and former state Rep. Bakari Sellers.
Ott, who talks about how the House has passed the hate crimes legislation twice, boasts the endorsement from St. Matthews Mayor Helen Carson-Peterson.
“At the end of the day, I’m always going to fight for all our communities in Senate District 26,” Ott said.
House Minority Leader Todd Rutherford, who has had his battles with Harpootlian, has said the current state senator has been a threat to Black people in the state and called Harpootlian an enemy among Democrats.
He even referred to Harpootlian of trying to “rent the Black vote,” referring to a comment made in jest in 1986 to a Columbia city council member.
Harpootlian said “I don’t want to buy the Black vote, I just want to rent it for a day.”
In defense of Harpootlian, Black politician Luther Battiste said “of the white politicians in Richland County, I think Dick Harpootlian is one of the most sensitive to the Black community.”
Harpootlian speaks how he stood along side Black leaders in the 1960s calling for civil rights.
“There is pervasive racism in our society, no question about it, but it cheapens the real allegations of racism when you use it as some sort of political dog whispering kind of thing like Russell is doing, or some of his supporters are doing,” Harpootlian said.
This story was originally published May 29, 2024 at 5:00 AM.
CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story misspelled the name of Luther Battiste.
