Post Traumatic Electoral Politics in SC Senate Runoff

[struggle4progress]

... When the polls closed only two candidates remained: Kenneth Hodges, a state representative from the district for 10 years and close friend of Senator Pinckney, and Margie Bright Matthews, a local attorney who received the endorsement of the Pinckney family for her run ...

If elected Bright Matthews would be only the second woman in the current 46 member State Senate and the sole female Democrat. (Republican lawmaker Katrina Shealy is currently the only woman, serving District 23.) ...

What brought about this election was horrific; Clem Pinckney, a young pastor, husband and father of two had faithfully represented the citizens of South Carolina's 45th district for over 15 years and was gunned down by a young white supremacist who admittedly targeted Pinckney and his church because of their combined political influence and might ...

But once the cameras were gone and the think pieces were written, most of the nation forgot that an entire community had lost its most powerful voice in a state legislature that had often left it poor and defenseless. The Lowcountry of South Carolina needed more than condolences and speeches after Clementa Pinckney's death, it needed representation ...

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/nbcblk/political-microcosm-south-carolina-senate-runoff-n421766