Age does not define new SC Senate GOP leader

Shane Massey knows he looks a bit young.

After he was elected to the S.C. Senate at age 32, State House staff often mistook the Edgefield Republican for a legislative page. On the campaign trail, he would show his driver’s license to voters to prove his age.

“They didn’t believe I was old enough to vote, much less be in the Senate,” Massey said.

Now 40, the third youngest state senator holds one of the chamber’s more influential positions, majority leader — the head of the Republican caucus.

His first introduction to the political process was when he went with his father to vote around 5 years old. The voting booth had a curtain that closed behind them. They faced a monstrosity of a voting machine.

His dad let him pull the lever on the machine to cast the ballot.

Massey, born in Greeneville, Tenn, moved to the S.C. political hatchery Edgefield, after his freshman year of high school. He attended Strom Thurmond High School and helped foster an interest in politics by taking a college-level class focused on government and U.S. history.

Massey was frustrated he couldn’t cast his own ballot in 1992, when he was taking the U.S. history class. Massey was just 17 years old and not old enough to vote in the election where Bill Clinton defeated incumbent George H.W. Bush, he said.

Massey’s interest in politics grew further after he was accepted to page for Edgefield political legend, U.S. Sen. Strom Thurmond, in Washington D.C.

Massey met Thurmond at his high school graduation just a couple of days before he left for the nation’s capital to page for the summer before his freshman year at Clemson University.

“He had such a firm handshake,” Massey said.

Thurmond, then 90, always bought the pages ice cream and gave them candy, Massey recalled.

Massey earned a chemistry degree from Clemson with the idea of becoming a nuclear engineer. But knew he wanted to go to law school for the education and to develop critical thinking skills.

During his time at Clemson, Massey met his wife, Blair, then a University of North Carolina at Charlotte student, while competing in a debate tournament in Georgia.

They were good friends for a few years, but they began to date after she went to law school in Texas.

After she moved back to her hometown of Charlotte, they were married and lived in different places for a few months. Eventually, Massey talked his wife into moving to Edgefield, where he lived and worked as an attorney in Aiken.

The couple made a deal.

Massey had two years to get involved in politics, otherwise they would consider moving back to Charlotte.

About a year and a half into the deal, then-state Sen. Thomas Moore, D-Aiken, resigned in 2007 to work for a national payday lending trade association.

The morning Moore resigned, Massey went to walk his dog.

When he returned, he was greeted by a paper sign on the back door that Blair made.

It read, “Vote for Shane.”

Having his wife’s support was a big deal, Massey said because of the physical and mental exhaustion of campaigning.

But Massey prevailed in his first political bid, defeating six opponents in the primary and a runoff for the Senate seat.

The sign still hangs on the back door, Blair Massey said, adding the ink has faded and now is barely visible.

Before becoming majority leader, Massey probably was best known for criticizing Sen. Hugh Leatherman, R-Florence, for seeking the Senate’s top post, in addition to heading the powerful budget-writing panel in 2014.

Massey said at the time Leatherman’s twin posts, which he still retains, was too much power for one senator. Massey was one of two senators to vote against Leatherman.

Massey, whose Strom Thurmond High School mascot were the Rebels, said this week that Leatherman has been gracious to him this year, adding he intends to work with the Senate’s 84-year-old leader.

But Blair Massey said her husband is “not one that’s going to back down to someone because of age or seniority or anything else.”

“He went up to Columbia … to shake things up.”

Massey also is known for being honest, even by Democratic senators.

State Sen. Joel Lourie, a Richland Democrat who sat next to Massey in the Senate for six years, said the new Republican leader has a no-nonsense reputation.

“He can have a very positive impact on the Senate chamber,” Lourie said.

His demeanor and character helped him win his latest election against two more senior senators.

After Sen. Harvey Peeler, R-Cherokee, unexpectedly stepped down as majority leader on Tuesday, Massey and two other Republican senators – Ronnie Cromer of Newberry and Larry Grooms of Berkeley — sought the job.

But ultimately, Massey won the support of his colleagues, including Grooms and Cromer, who nominated him.

The GOP Senate caucus members elected Massey unanimously by acclimation.

Massey gave credit to other senators — including Peeler, former President Pro Tempore Glenn McConnell, R-Charleston, and Senate Judiciary Chairman Larry Martin, R-Pickens — for entrusting him with subcommittee chairmanships and other roles.

Martin said Massey’s ability to keep his emotions in check helped win him the coveted leadership position.

“His temperature doesn't rise very fast in a heated situation," Martin said.

His new post will fuel chatter about Massey’s political future, including a possible run for governor.

When asked about a potential bid in 2018, Massey said it is hard enough representing five counties as a senator.

Still, if he ran for the state’s top political seat, Massey would have plenty of history behind him.

Edgefield County already boasts of being home to 10 governors.

This story was originally published April 8, 2016 at 4:57 PM with the headline "Age does not define new SC Senate GOP leader."