The general rule of thumb in endorsement editorials is to outline the candidates being endorsed, wax poetic about their accomplishments and say nothing about the challengers.
In the race for Senate District 41, we are making a huge exception.
First, to be clear, the Charleston City Paper wholeheartedly endorses incumbent S.C. Sen. Sandy Senn in the June 11 Republican primary. Why? Because she’s the kind of public servant that South Carolina needs more of. She’s courageous. She listens. And she provides the thoughtful leadership across party lines that is vital for our state to move forward and away from the partisan vitriol too common in modern politics.
Second, to be clear, the Charleston City Paper strongly discourages anyone from voting for her GOP primary opponent, freshman Rep. Matt Leber. Why? Because we really don’t know who he is.
Not only has Leber dodged multiple phone calls and attempts to reach him since before he was elected, his past is murky, at best, which Senn points out in tough campaign materials. Leber, who appears more right wing than most right-wingers, beat a Democratic candidate in 2022 by just 581 votes out of 17,000 cast in a traditionally Democratic district that had been gerrymandered. During that cycle, he seemed to appear out of nowhere, an obvious strategy to keep people from digging into his past.
In an effort that was far too late, the state Democratic Party attempted to shed light on Leber, but its claims got lost in the blender of too many campaigns. The party claimed Leber was a member of a militia group called American Patriot III, also known as the 3 Percenters, and provided online links from 2014 and 2016 to back up its claim. Leber reportedly denied it was him.
“I am simply astonished at the hate flowing from Matt Leber’s heart,” then-S.C. Democratic Party Chairman Trav Robertson said in 2022. “How can someone from South Carolina hate people so much that he has taken up arms against our own government? This radical right-wing paramilitary group wants to destroy freedom and democracy.”
But for Leber, the silent campaign treatment worked and he sneaked into office. Last week, he actually picked up a phone call, only to slip away by saying he didn’t have time to talk after a reporter identified himself.
After the 2022 election, the Johns Island resident was appointed as a non-lawyer to the House Judiciary Committee. His legislative leadership has been minimal — he introduced three minor bills, none of which passed in the 2023-24 legislative session. And yet, now he wants a promotion to the more deliberative Senate where Senn is a rising star.
Matt Leber doesn’t deserve anyone’s vote in the reconfigured Senate District 41, which now stretches from western Charleston County and into Colleton and Dorchester counties. Anyone elected to public office who won’t interact with the public and press and seems to distrust democracy needs to be sent home.
Keep a good state senator in office. If you live in District 41, vote for Sandy Senn June 11 in the GOP primary. Otherwise, you don’t know what you’re going to get.
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