Slashed tires and a shot through a window. Is Shealy being harassed this campaign?

Republican State Sen. Katrina Shealy has seen nasty campaign tactics before. She has been attacked on campaign mailers, billboards and TV ads. But the Lexington senator’s never experienced a campaign season like this one.

“I mean this is not campaigning, this is harassment, and it’s dangerous, too,” Shealy said. “I’m not as worried about this as my family is, because, well I probably should worry about it more than I do. If something happens to me, I wanted somebody to know it, that’s why I told the police.”

Shealy is not accusing her opponents or anyone, specifically. But she has had numerous incidents happen against her this election cycle, she said. Shealy is running in the state Senate District 23 Republican primary against Zoe Warren and Carlisle Kennedy, neither of whom reported any similar incidents this campaign season.

The senator says someone slashed her tires in March and a pellet was shot through a window at her home in late April.

Back in April 2023, after she helped block an limited abortion ban in the Senate, there were the expected fliers and protesters outside her church and billboard ads saying she was not pro-life. But as the June primaries have neared, it has been more than campaigning against her, she has had strange experiences.

In March, Shealy said she got a flat tire at church. She said the tire was cut and a razor blade was found in it.

“We know that somebody did it. Someone had taken a case cutter and cut all the way down to the run flat part,” Shealy said. “We found the end of the case cutter, the razor blade in there. It’s absurd someone would do that. Tires are expensive. You know, I had to buy a new tire.”

In late April, her husband’s caregiver asked her about a hole in a window at Shealy’s home. They first thought it was caused by tree limb, but then realized it could not have been due to where the hole was located near the awning, Shealy said. She believes someone shot a pellet gun or something similar at the window.

“You don’t go shooting at somebody’s house. You don’t go to their church and slash their tires. This is crazy. We’ve had all the nasty billboard, all that stuff. I’ve decided to just turn it over to the Lord.”

Shealy reported the incident to the police. A report from the Lexington County Sheriff’s Office from April 19 detailed the incident Shealy described.

The report stated that an unknown subject broke her window.

“Shealy “stated she wasn’t worried at first, but due to election season, she has been dealing with various forms of harassment,” the report read. “[She] preferred the incident be documented in case anything further happens in the future.”

The report said the double panel window was broken from the outside, but the inside inner-window was intact.

In May, Shealy was contacted about a man going door-to-door in a South Congaree neighborhood. The man wanted a “statement” on Shealy; to know what political party the homeowner was affiliated with; and when asked what he was doing, described himself as a “survivor,” she said. The person who told Shealy this said they shut the door on the man.

“That’s what I would’ve done because I would’ve thought he was psycho, like someone from the living dead or something,” Shealy said.

In March, Shealy was reported to animal control about not feeding her donkeys.

“I have the best kept animals in the world. Anybody that knows my donkeys, I mean, I know my donkeys by name and they know me. My donkeys are probably too fat, but they’re certainly not too skinny,” Shealy said.

A report from Lexington County Animal Services detailed eight donkeys that appeared in “good body condition and appeared healthy.” The report additionally said Shealy stated she had just paid $400 to “get their hooves done.”

When animal control came, the donkeys had all just had a “pedicure,” Shealy said. “Why would you report me to animal control? Why would somebody do that?”