Sea Island statehouse race pits 5-term incumbent vs. businesswoman. Where do they differ?
A five-term statehouse District 121 incumbent from St. Helena Island is being challenged for his seat by a retired businesswoman from Fripp Island in a race to represent one of the most picturesque areas of northern Beaufort County’s Sea Islands.
Michael Rivers, a St. Helena Island Democrat who has represented House District 121 for eight years, is running for re-election for a sixth two-year term. The 66-year-old, who grew up with the many of the residents he now represents, says he’s a known quantity. He touts his salt-of-the-earth upbringing on St. Helena and his knowledge of local issues. He also cites his experience serving on the Beaufort County School Board before he was elected to the statehouse.
The challenger
Republican Shelley Gay Yuhas, 61, of Fripp Island is a Beaufort native and former CFO at two small businesses. She says residents are ready for a change and says her skills developed as a business and not-for-profit leader drove her passion to serve at the state level.
The sprawling rural district of 42,000 residents in Beaufort and Colleton counties includes Fripp Island and much of St. Helena and extends inland reaching north of Beaufort to Burton, Gray’s Hill, Green Pond, Ritter and Walterboro.
Rivers’ top issues
Rivers, an ordained pastor since 2002, served on the Beaufort County School Board for 18 years before he was elected to the statehouse in 2016.
Rivers points to his accomplishment of sponsoring a bill last year to require elementary students to be taught cursive writing in the second, third and fourth grades. It passed the House but the Senate didn’t take it up.
He also wants to see a hate crimes law passed that increases penalties for offenses fueled by race, gender or sexual orientation. Supporters introduced the law after nine Black worshipers were shot to death at a Charleston church in 2015.
He supports expanding Medicaid through the The Affordable Care Act, an issue that’s been debated in Columbia.
Rivers called the recent federal and state restrictions on abortion an “attack on women’s health care freedoms” similar to “telling your mom what to do,” which he called disrespectful. On May 25, 2023, Gov. Henry McMaster signed a bill that placed a ban on the procedure after the sixth week of pregnancy. “Most laws are made by men and they don’ t have experience or the right to dictate what’s best for them,” Rivers said.
Rivers also wants to see a decrease in the cost of homeowner’s insurance. The rising costs are hurting local people particularly those who are living on a fixed incomes and young people on a limited income. “It shouldn’t be where the wealthy can get insurance and those that do not have, have to fend for themselves,” Rivers said. “That’s not right.”
He’s concerned that it is becoming more challenging for native islanders to fish and crab in area rivers and also make a living subsisting on its natural resources. He brought up trapping of blue crab as an example. He says that crabbers have to send their catch to Maryland markets to make money. He wants local crabbers to get better prices in local markets.
Background and work ethic
The biggest difference between him and and his opponent, Rivers says, is their backgrounds. His history is one of modest means. He tells the story of a childhood home sounding like a band room when it rained because there were so many buckets and pans catching the runoff from the falling rain.
Rivers says his roots in the area help him understand the issues that are important to local residents.
He sponsored a bill in his first session that makes the second Saturday in November Penn Center Heritage Days. Penn Center is the first school in the South for formerly enslaved West Africans whose descendants are known as Gullah Geechee. He also sponsored a bill designating May 13 as “Robert Smalls Day.” Robert Smalls was a Beaufort man who escaped slavery and later went on to become a Civil War hero and serve in Congress. He says he has helped to secure funding for community centers in Green Pond and Ritter.
Rivers says he’s a workaholic and the only Democrat in the House delegation in Beaufort County. It’s important, he says, to have differing voices. His opponent, he says, is “trying to take away the only Gullah representation we have.”
Time and passion
Yuhas says she wants to bring her compassion for people and the skills she learned as a mother of four and as a business and not-for-profit leader to Columbia.
She is a former CFO of two small businesses she started in 1994 and 2016. She retired a year ago to focus on community service. She also helped start Crown Leadership Academy, one of Charleston’s best private schools, where she was board chairperson for nine years.
Born and raised in Beaufort, Yuhas is the daughter of a school nurse and a county tax assessor. Yuhas says she recalls her mother delivering groceries to the front porches of families in need as she watched from the back seat. Later, as an adult, she served as the board chairperson for 3/12 years of the Lowcountry Food Bank.
District 121 is one of the most beautiful in the state and is part of the ACE Basin, according to Yuhas. It’s also one of the largest undeveloped estuaries on the East Coast and the shortened name comes from the Ashepoo, Combahee and Edisto rivers.
“A lot of that land is in conservation and I think we can do more in conservation,” Yuhas says.
Its people and cultures are as diverse as the landscape, she says, and she wants to work together to find solutions to problems.
Yuhas says “actions speak louder than words” and she is passionate about getting out in the district and giving residents stronger representation in Columbia.
“I think we need a voice that will be active in the community,” said Yuhas. “I believe it is winnable because I believe people are ready for a change and they are looking for someone who his going to be busy working hard for their families.”
She has the time and passion to represent the district and the willingness to work with everyone, Yuhas says.
Yuhas’ top issues
When asked what her top issues were, Yuhas said the economy first. In that regard, Yuhas says, she has a lot of business experience and knows how to find waste in a budget and stretch a dollar.
Another issue she is concerned about is the future for young people in the largely rural district. A grandmother recently confided to her, “We’re losing our children,” Yuhas said. Young adults today face challenges that are unique and demand innovative solutions, she says. She wants to create educational options for them and supports school choice and job skills preparation.
Safety is also a concern not just locally but nationally, she says. She supports law enforcement and programs to increase activity options for young people particularly in the district’s rural areas. South of the Broad River, she said, there are “great things” when it comes to facilities. “I think we need to catch up north of the Broad,” Yuhas said. There are many creative ways to support families when it comes to mental health issues and isolation, she added, and whatever she can do to help families “I’m going to do it.”
Yuhas agrees with the current South Carolina abortion law signed by the governor law restricting abortion after the first six weeks. of a pregnancy. “I believe a life is a life and I believe every life has purpose,” she said.
Yuhas also supports efforts to maintain the area’s history including the Cultural Protection Overlay of St. Helena Island that limits development. The CPO came under intense debate recently when a golf course was proposed on Pine Island.
“Almost every resident I talk to they support keeping things the way they are,” Yuhas says.
This story was originally published October 29, 2024 at 11:12 AM.
