As a member of the South Carolina Senate, Harpootlian has been a frequent critic of the state's budgetary practices. He is a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Harpootlian's law firm has represented neighborhoods near Five Points in Columbia, a popular weekend location for college students, in protestations against liquor licenses in the area. Several bars in the area have made agreements with the state to change their procedures as a result of the liquor license protests. As a result of Harpootlian's work, one bar was forced to close down.[6]
Harpootlian was unsuccessful in his representation of former attorney Alex Murdaugh, who had been charged with more than 90 counts of breach of trust with fraudulent intent, computer crimes, money laundering and forgery. Murdaugh has been convicted of murdering his young son Paul and wife Maggie and was sentenced to two life sentences, after a six-week long trial.[7]
On June 4, 2018, John E. Courson resigned his senate seat after pleading guilty to mishandling campaign funds.[12] Courson's resignation was related to the South Carolina Statehouse corruption investigation led by David Pascoe which found multiple instances of wrongdoing in the South Carolina General Assembly. In November 2018, Harpootlian defeated Benjamin Dunn in a special election for Courson's old senate seat.[13] It was the first time in 14 years a Democrat flipped a Republican-held Senate seat.[14]
2024 South Carolina Senate election: In 2021, redistricting plans for the South Carolina Senate moved Harpootlian's district in Richland County to Charleston County on the coast.[15] On January 11, 2024, Harpootlian announced his candidacy for State Senate District 26 seat, currently held by incumbent Senator Nikki G. Setzler, who is not running for re-election.[16] State Representative Russell Ott announced for the seat in February 2024.[17][18] The primary race between Harpootlian and Ott has generated headlines. Harpootlian was endorsed by Congressman Jim Clyburn and Former State Representative Bakari Sellers. Ott was endorsed by St. Matthews Mayor Helen Carson-Peterson. [19][20][21][22] In the preliminary results for the 2024 Democratic primary, Harpootlian lost to Ott by 2 points.[23]
Tenure
Since joining the Senate, Harpootlian has been critical of the University of South Carolina's hiring practices and legislation giving the Carolina Panthers tax incentives to move their headquarters to Rock Hill, South Carolina. In May 2019, Harpootlian commissioned his own independent analysis on the economic benefits of moving the Panthers headquarters to Rock Hill. The report found that the added jobs to the area were a third of what the state of South Carolina's review found. Harpootlian stalled the Senate vote on the measure although it later passed.[24]
In November 2019, Harpootlian was criticized for profanely threatening to have an aide of the Richland County Legislation Delegation fired over a press release which failed to include job openings at the Columbia airport.[25] In December 2019 he called the university's search for the president's next chief of staff "cronyism at its finest."[26] Harpootlian came out against a bill in the senate which would legalize curbside pickup for alcohol products in January 2020.[27] And in December of that year Harpootlian raised concerns about $43 million in untracked earmarks which attracted statewide coverage.[28]
In March 2021, Harpootlian proposed that South Carolina permit the use of firing squads as an alternative method of capital punishment in South Carolina. Harpootlian said that while he "abhorred" and "resisted" the death penalty, his work as a prosecutor trying the serial killer Donald Henry Gaskins led to him opposing the electric chair as a "horrible, horrible thing to do to another human being." He worked with Republican State Senator Greg Hembree to propose that a bill allowing the use of electrocution also allow the condemned to choose between that option and firing squads. Harpootlian said that "the death penalty is going to stay the law here for a while. If we’re going to have it, it ought to be humane... This was a desperation move on my part to minimize the pain and suffering of the condemned."[29]
Endorsements
During the 2016 Democratic Party presidential primaries, Harpootlian stated that he was a "Joe Biden guy."[30] He endorsed Bernie Sanders for president on February 3, 2016, comparing Sanders' passion with the kind Obama exuded in 2007 when they had first met."[31] In 2020, Harpootlian endorsed Joe Biden for president, stating "If the Democratic Party believes nominating a socialist is the way to win in November, they need to start drug testing at the national committee" in reference to Sanders.[32]
Controversies
In September 2012, Harpootlian drew controversy when he compared then-governor Nikki Haley to Eva Braun, the mistress of Adolf Hitler. The remarks were condemned by Norm Coleman, the chair of the Jewish coalition of Mitt Romney's presidential campaign, who accused him of "trivializing Nazism".[33] Harpootlian drew further controversy in 2013 for remarks he made at the annual Jackson-Jefferson dinner of the state Democratic Party, where he said that they needed to "send Nikki Haley back to wherever the hell she came from"; Haley is Indian-American with Sikh heritage, and her parents immigrated from India. A Haley campaign spokeswoman criticized the remarks as targeting her ethnicity.[34] Harpootlian's remarks were condemned as racist or xenophobic by Indian news outlets India Today, Firstpost, and Outlook.[35][36][37] Harpootlian later apologized, claiming that he did not intend to target her ethnicity and that he wanted her to "go back to being an accountant in a dress store rather than being this fraud of a governor that we have".[34]
On February 5, 2020, Harpootlian tweeted that South Carolina Legislative Black Caucus Chairman Jerry Govan Jr., received "almost $50,000" from the Tom Steyer Presidential campaign for campaign services.[38] Harpootlian referred to Steyer as "Mr. Moneybags" and suggested that he had purchased Govan's support.[39] Later that day, members of the South Carolina Legislative Black Caucus held a press conference asking Biden to distance himself from Harpootlian.[40] Later that day, Steyer accused Harpootlian of having "a horrid track record of disrespecting and disparaging African Americans."[38] Steyer also asked Biden to disavow Dick Harpootlian and what he said during a 2020 Democratic Party presidential debate in New Hampshire. Harpootlian denied that his comments were racially motivated,[41] State Sen. Marlon Kimpson, a Legislative Black Caucus member, noted that the press conference was not held by the caucus itself, but by Govan and his supporters; some caucus members, including Kimpson, did not participate. Kimpson, a Biden supporter, characterized the controversy as an outgrowth of personal feuds between state lawmakers.[42]
^Brams, Sophie (January 11, 2024). "Democrat Dick Harpootlian to seek re-election to South Carolina Senate". WCBD-TV. Retrieved February 15, 2024.
^Parrilla-Guerrero, Mayra (February 13, 2024). "State Representative Russell Ott announces candidacy for State Senate District 26". WIS-TV. Retrieved February 15, 2024.
