Harvey S. Peeler, Jr.

Harvey Smith Peeler Jr. (born September 8, 1948) is an American politician. He is a member of the South Carolina Senate, representing the 14th District since the 1980s, initially as a Democrat, and from October 1989, as a Republican. He was the Senate Majority Leader from 2005 to 2016

S.C. Senate Peeler has served as a state senator for South Carolina since 1981. He resigned as Majority Leader in 2016, passing the position to A. Shane Massey.

In Peeler's first year in the state senate, he formed a voting bloc with Hugh Leatherman. In 1989, he was one of five Democratic South Carolina legislators to switch to the Republican Party from the Democratic.

He has previously chaired the Senate Medical Affairs Committee, and served as vice-chairman of the Senate Finance Committee since 2007.

Controversies

Confederate flag In 2015, after the shooting at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, which killed fellow State Senator Clementa C. Pinckney, Peeler voted against removing the Confederate flag. Peeler compared removing it to "removing a tattoo from the corpse of a loved one and thinking that that would change the loved one's obituary." He was one of only three state senators to vote against its removal, the other two being Danny Verdin and Lee Bright. Fifteen years earlier, Peeler was one of only seven senators who voted against the flag's removal from the top of the South Carolina Capitol Dome and both chambers of the South Carolina Legislature to its present position on the capitol grounds, arguing that the flag's removal would only worsen race relations. The 2000 vote was a compromise between anti- and pro-flag forces in the wake of an economic boycott of the state.

Personal life Peeler was born on September 8, 1948, in Gaffney, South Carolina.

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Democratic James Y. Sparks

Republican 14,558 73.09% 1st −26.88%

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Democratic Write-in

14,685 96.76% 1st +23.67%

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Republican Larry Sossamon

Democratic 13,292 51.53% 1st −45.23%

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Republican Henry L. Jolly

Democratic 15,612 61.92% 1st +10.39%

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Republican Write-in

21,739 99.76% 1st +37.84%

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Republican Rick Dizbon

Democratic 22,957 69.48% 1st −30.28%

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Republican Write-in

29,179 99.22% 1st +29.74%

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Republican Write-in

31,620 99.13% 1st −0.09%

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Rep. primary

Republican Kenny Price

Republican 5,196 82.87% 1st N/A

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Republican Write-in

36,427 99.09% 1st −0.04%

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Republican Sarah Work

Alliance 42,377 83.86% 1st −15.23%

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