Beaufort Co. leader drops out of congressional race. Files for statehouse
Beaufort County Council member Mike Covert has dropped out of the race for the 1st Congressional district and has instead filed to run for Bill Herbkersman’s South Carolina House of Representatives District 118 seat, Covert announced Friday morning.
Covert, 52, who has served District 7 on Beaufort County Council since 2017, had initially filed to run for the U.S. House of Representatives in January 2019 to unseat U.S. Rep. Joe Cunningham (D-S.C.).
“With the current situation of things locally, regionally and statewide, I find that my work here inside South Carolina is not yet done,” he said.
Now shifting his focus to the statehouse — a seat Herbkersman has held since 2003 — Covert said his campaign will center on the “three T approach to fix some things in S.C.”: taxes, term limits and teachers.
Covert has been a vocal member on Beaufort County Council, speaking out against what he calls “corruption on different levels.”
On two separate occasions, Covert called for the removal of embattled former chairman Stu Rodman after The Island Packet and Beaufort Gazette reported Rodman’s repeated circumvention of rules, unilateral decisions and backdoor conversations with employees.
“That tenacity will continue to the statehouse,” he said. “I voted ‘no’ to two different budgets due to zero cost cutting and a ‘no look approach’ to expenses. I am a blue collar business owner and an entrepreneur. I won’t and don’t operate to be politically correct.”
Covert is the former president and managing member of Covert Aire LLC, a heating and air-conditioning business.
He said his campaign will focus on replacing the state income tax with a “flatter tax,” term limits for state house members and a wage program for teachers that includes housing benefits and programs and “will become the envy of the nation.”
“Residents and businesses throughout the 118th District and, really statewide, will have a very vocal and empowered voice in the General Assembly,” he said. “I want to completely reform once and for all our business license system. I want to reform our tax system where South Carolinians take more of their check home. I want to be that voice for the counties and the municipalities, that someone is listening and understands you and will fight for you.”
A staunch social conservative, Covert is active on social media and regularly voices his support for the 2nd Amendment, anti-abortion laws and President Donald Trump.
Last summer, Covert came under fire on social media after a 2017 Facebook photo resurfaced that showed the council member in a bow tie that some said looked too much like the Confederate flag.
“I think the Confederate flag belongs in a museum. I wouldn’t wear it because it doesn’t go with anything I wear. I don’t have anything with a Confederate flag,” Covert said. “Some people wear them on shirts, and that’s their prerogative.”
After receiving backlash about the photo, the company that sold the tie took it off its website.
Covert, originally from Virginia, has lived in South Carolina since 1996, according to his county council profile.
He is married to Theresa and has four daughters and six grandchildren, according to the profile.
This story was originally published March 27, 2020 at 11:10 AM.
