Pro-Life Voters Turned Out to Defeat Three Extremist Republican Pro-abortion Senators; Replaced With Pro-Life Candidates
By Holly Gatling, Executive Director South Carolina Citizens for Life
COLUMBIA, S.C. (Wednesday, June 26, 2024) – National Right to Life President Carol Tobias is fond of saying that the abortion industry has the money, but the pro-life movement has the people, and we will take the people over the money any time.
That proved true in the South Carolina Republican primary elections June 11 and the runoff June 25, when pro-life voters turned out to defeat three extremist Republican pro-abortion women senators and replace them with pro-life candidates who have pledged to support South Carolina Citizens for Life’s life-saving legislation.
“These races show that
South Carolina voters in the Republican primary care deeply about the protection of unborn children,” said Lisa Van Riper, President of South Carolina Citizens for Life, the state’s oldest and largest single-issue right-to-life organization. “People need to be very careful when attempting to disregard this issue.”
The South Carolina Citizens for Life Action PAC contributed to the defeat of two of the three “Sister
Senators” in the June 11 primary and forced the third Sister Senator, Katrina Shealy, into a runoff on June 25 when she was soundly defeated by our PAC-endorsed candidate Carlisle Kennedy.
Photo Courtesy of Carlisle Kennedy for State Senate Campaign
From left, Sandy Senn, Katrina
Shealy and Penry Gustafson at the South Carolina State House in Columbia, on April 19, 2023. Jeffrey Collins / AP file
The “Sister Senators” is the name the secular news media gave to five pro-abortion women Senators, including three Republicans, who voted to defeat the Human Life Protection Act, and tried, but failed to defeat
the Fetal Heartbeat and Protection from Abortion Act. So far, the Fetal Heartbeat Act has caused abortions occurring in South Carolina to decline by 80 percent, according to data maintained by the S. C. Department of Health and Environmental Control.
On June 11, Sister Senator Sandy Senn lost to SCCL Action PAC endorsed candidate Matt Leber by 36 votes, the narrowest of the three victories. Mr. Leber, a pro-life member of the South Carolina House of Representatives, now moves
up to the Senate.
Likewise, Sister Senator Penry Gustafson lost to SCCL Action PAC endorsed pro-life candidate Allen Blackmon by a resounding rejection vote of 82.07 percent to 17.93 percent, according to the South Carolina Election Commission.
Some news media reports claimed more than $350,000 funded the campaigns to re-elect the pro-abortion Sister Senators. South Carolina Citizens for Life and the SCCL Action PAC focused on pro-life identified voting lists, cost-effective and truthful social media, get-out-the vote advertisements, and the simple message: Vote Pro-Life. Vote for Carlisle Kennedy. Vote for Matt Leber. Vote for Allen
Blackmon.
Once again, this election proves that South Carolina is pro-life, and voters will hold elected officials and candidates accountable to the unborn members of our human family who cannot yet vote.
