State Sen. Vincent A. Sheheen, who lost a closer-than-expected contest to Nikki Haley for the South Carolina governorship in 2010, is apparently itching for a rematch.
“Our state deserves better than the failed and dysfunctional government it has received from our current politicians,” Sheheen wrote in a recent email to supporters. “Three years ago, we came so very close to changing South Carolina for the better. Now we can finish the job together.”
First elected to the South Carolina House of Representatives while in his late twenties before winning a seat in the State Senate in 2004, the youthful-looking state legislator and former city prosecutor said that he will formally declare his candidacy later this summer.
Once named South Carolina’s “Legislator of the Year,” Sheheen was widely credited with helping to lead an effort in the State Senate to secure more than $700 million in federal stimulus money in 2009 when then-Gov. Mark Sanford announced that he would reject it.
The tall and lanky Sheheen, who represents the 27th District, comprising Chesterfield, Kershaw and Lancaster counties, recently launched a book tour promoting his new book, “The Right Way: Getting the Palmetto State Back on Track.”
Sheheen, who will turn 42 later this month, put up a valiant fight against the heavily-favored Haley — a darling of the rabidly anti-government Tea Party — three years ago, erasing the Republican’s seemingly comfortable double-digit lead in the closing weeks of the campaign before losing by a margin of 690,525 votes to 630,534, a difference of only slightly more than four percentage points.
Sheheen hopes to become the first Democrat to capture the governor’s mansion since 1998 when James H. Hodges — a prohibitive underdog at the outset of that year’s campaign — unseated Republican incumbent David Beasley.
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