Democrats clash in heated primary for Beaufort-area House seat
Editor's Note: Rep. Michael Rivers Sr. and Shannon DeLoach are battling in a contentious primary race for House District 121 that will conclude on the final day of voting Tuesday.
Rivers, a 67-year-old minister and former Beaufort County School Board member from St. Helena Island, first won House District 121 in November 2016 and took office in 2017. He’s won four times since and touts his experience.
But he’s facing an aggressive challenge from DeLoach, 41, Beaufort, a pastor at Yemassee’s Mt. Sinai Baptist Church who owns Serenity Mortuary. DeLoach says the district needs a fresh voice.
In the Nov. 3 general election, the winner will face Republican Shelley Gay Yuhas of St. Helena Island, who is unopposed in the primary.
Where is the district?
The sprawling district with 42,000 residents in Beaufort and Colleton counties stretches from Walterboro to Fripp Island in the south. It includes most of St. Helena Island, and extends north as far Green Pond, Ritter, Walterboro and Yemassee north of Beaufort. The communities of Gray’s Hill, Sheldon, Dale and Lobeco and large parts of the Burton area are included as well. The district also takes in a small part of the northern part of the city of Beaufort. Here’s a map:
Charges and rebuttals
The campaign has turned decidedly negative as election day approaches.
Rivers told the Beaufort Gazette and Island Packet he believes he’s being challenged within his own party because he would not support changes in the cultural protection overlay district (CPO) in St. Helena that has prevented the construction of a proposed golf course-centered development called Pine Island.
“This whole thing is about me not being a willing participant to endorse or support the Pine Island issue,” he said. “That’s what this whole thing is about.”
DeLoach called the allegation that he is running due to Pine island “a lie.” He said he didn’t even know what a CPO was until he got into the race. That said, he supports the CPO, which he notes is enforced by the Beaufort County Council and not state lawmakers.
“He’s doing everything to spread lies to say I’m against the CPO, and that is not true,” DeLoach said of Rivers.
“There’s a CPO in place and I stand behind it,” DeLoach added.
Late in the campaign, on Wednesday, accusations of impropriety were lodged against DeLoach publicly on Facebook. DeLoach quickly responded that it was another example of the kind of mud he said Rivers has been slinging his way in the campaign.
Tedura Hannibal published a Facebook post titled “scammer alert.” In it, she alleged she had $7,000 in cemetery and headstone expenses for her grandson’s funeral added to the overall funeral bill she paid to DeLoach’s Serenity Mortuary Historic Beaufort Chapel. She accuses DeLoach of not passing the $7,000 to the cemetery.
DeLoach took to Facebook the next day to address the charges. First, he expressed his sincere sympathy for anybody who lost a loved one. But he added that are always multiple sides of the story. But social media, he added, is not the appropriate channel to address complex matters that require facts and documentation.
“I don’t do smear campaigns,” DeLoach said. “I stick to the facts. I stick to the issues. Unfortunately, I have not been afforded that same opportunity.”
Why Michael Rivers is running
Rivers is a minister at United Church of Jesus Christ in Beaufort and the chairman-elect of the South Carolina Legislative Black Caucus. He grew up on a farm on Seaside Road on St. Helena and served in the U.S. Air Force.
Rivers was on the Beaufort County School Board for 18 years prior to winning the House seat 10 years ago.
The main reason he is running is his experience and a desire to continue what he’s started, Rivers said.
Rivers touts record
Rivers said he’s very pleased about a heirs’ property bill that passed this legislative season. Heirs’ property is land passed down through generations without a formal will or clear legal title. Rivers says the bill cuts red tape. He’s also proud of his first bill passed in 2018 which set the second Saturday in November as Penn Center Heritage Day. The 50-acre site on St. Helena, a former school for newly freed slaves that today works to safeguard Gullah-Geechee heritage, is considered one of the most significant African American institutions in the country.
Another bill he would like to see passed would make it mandatory to teach cursive writing in grades 2-5.
As chairman of the South Carolina Legislative Black Caucus, Rivers says he has access to the Speaker of the House “versus not being in the room at all.” He says it would be political suicide for Democrats to give up his experience and access.
“We’ve fought this long to be able to drive the bus,” Rivers said. “It would be insane to now sit in the back of the bus. And that’s the difference between having leadership and having someone who quite frankly, when you are a rookie, your freshman year, you’re so busy learning the place, we’ll be going backwards.”
Rivers’ top issues
One of the biggest issues in the area right now is the concern for the preservation of the Gullah community, Rivers said. St. Helena, he said, has been discovered.
“I’ve been Gullah before Gullah was cool,” Rivers said.
Some local people are being pushed out of the area as the demographics change, he says.
“You don’t want the culture that built this environment to be erased, and that’s something I’m concerned about,” Rivers said.
Rising insurance is a problem as well. “Some people are being priced out when it comes to affordability,” he said.
Funding for public schools, health care and education are top issues for Rivers as well.
Why Shannon DeLoach is running
DeLoach owns a funeral firm that has locations in Summerville and Beaufort.
His campaign has been engaged with volunteers. DeLoach has been going door-to-door, attending various forums and reaching out to the district with phone calls and texts.
“It’s about the people,” DeLoach said. “It’s about the proper representation.“
One word sums up why he got into the race, and that is “thrive” — he says everybody wants to thrive.
“We’re living in an affordability crisis,” DeLoach said.
DeLoach’s top issues
One group DeLoach mentioned was seniors. They should be able to retire with dignity, he said. Resources for the elderly should be available so they are not forced back into the workplace to make ends meet. He thinks utility payments for seniors, for example, should be based on their income. At a certain age, they should not have to pay utility bills, he said.
“The government has an obligation to the people, and that is not to be a burden to the people but lift the burden from the people,” DeLoach said.
He also supports rent caps because of the rising cost of housing across the Lowcountry. “We’re nomads within our own district,” DeLoach said.
Access to quality health care, backing public teachers and making sure law enforcement is equipped to do their job to protect everybody are priority issues for him, he said.
DeLoach touts change
DeLoach says he will be active and vocal as the area’s representative. If elected, he said, it will be his obligation to bring people together in forums to talk about the issues. It’s really the people who make legislation, he said, not lawmakers.
Rivers, he said, is “ceremonial at best.”
“The people need a fresh voice,” DeLoach said. “He’s been in the seat long enough now and its unfortunate when I campaign all across this district people don’t even know who Michael Rivers is.”
