Will abortion debate oust Richland GOP lawmaker in SC House? His Dem challenger hopes so

South Carolina state Rep. Kirkman Finlay has the campaign credentials to skate to reelection Nov. 8 to represent House District 75 in Richland County.

He’s a 10-year incumbent with a massive campaign war chest and five consecutive victories under his belt in a state where incumbents nearly always win.

But in one of Richland County’s only swing districts, Finlay’s Democratic challenger Heather Bauer is aiming to oust the Republican legislator by using a recent state GOP legislative priority to further tighten abortion restrictions against him and making abortion rights her campaign’s key focus.

Bauer’s campaign strategy mirrors those of other Democrats nationwide after the U.S. Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision in June that overruled the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade, thus empowering states to further restrict abortions.

Still, it’s unclear whether abortion rights will push the electorate to the polls. That will only become clear Nov. 8.

Bauer told The State newspaper that she favors a state law modeled on the now-overturned Roe case that legalized abortions up to about 24 weeks, or when a fetus is able to live outside the womb. Roe, she said, guaranteed women and their doctors the health care privacy they should be entitled to.

“This is like a state of emergency for women in South Carolina,” Bauer said. “It’s about freedom, it’s about women deciding what they do with their own bodies. It’s about trusting women to make their own decisions. Kirkman Finlay has voted continuously against those things.”

In 2021, South Carolina’s Republican-controlled Legislature passed a law banning abortions after about six weeks, but that law is now on hold as the state Supreme Court mulls whether it violates the state Constitution’s right to privacy. Meanwhile, with the six-week ban on hold, South Carolina is operating under its old abortion law, which allows the procedure up to about 20 weeks.

And, so far, lawmakers have yet to reach a compromise on a more narrow abortion ban bill — H. 5399 — after the Legislature returned for a special session this year to respond to the Dobbs ruling.

Finlay, who was elected to the state House in 2012, declined repeatedly to speak with a reporter with The State newspaper about his race and why he is seeking reelection unless the interview could be “off the record,” meaning the reporter could not share Finlay’s comments with the public. The reporter declined.

Finlay’s Columbia-area district, one of the state’s few competitive House districts, is made up of a sprawling cluster of largely residential neighborhoods that covers Heathwood, Forest Acres, parts of Shandon and Rosewood, as well as the areas of Lake Katherine and the Hampton and Old Woodlands communities behind the Veterans Hospital.

Fort Jackson, the U.S. Army installation, and the Whole Foods and Target shopping centers sit in his district.

Moreover, the majority of the district’s voters are women, according to the S.C. Election Commission.

Finlay, who previously served on Columbia City Council and made an unsuccessful run for mayor before he joined the House, has fought off challengers in election cycles before. But two years ago, he nearly lost his seat against Democrat Rhodes Bailey, a lawyer, winning by 257 votes out of 17,282 votes cast.

Finlay’s silence on the abortion debate has given Bauer an opening.

Recent political mail-outs sent to District 75 voters by the S.C. Democratic Party say Finlay “would require doctors to report victims of rape and incest to police,” would force “children as young as 10” to give birth and would require women “to give birth to dead babies.”

That’s why, Bauer said, it’s important to get Finlay out of the Legislature, so she and other like-minded lawmakers can work to pass a law giving women the right to choose.

Finlay, whose own mail-outs to voters have included general statements touting spending tax dollars on public education, road repairs, broadband access and water and sewer infrastructure, declined to respond.

The South Carolina Republican Party, meanwhile, has emailed at least two call outs to voters asking them to support Finlay over his “radical” challenger.

Kirkman Finlay vs. Heather Bauer

Finlay, 52, whose legislative bio lists him as a farmer and restaurateur, is the most recent prominent member of a family of South Carolina businessmen and politicians. He attended the University of Virginia, one of the nation’s elite public universities.

The multimillion-dollar Finlay Park behind downtown Columbia’s post office was named after his late father, Kirkman Finlay Jr., a former Columbia mayor and city council member.

Finlay’s public statement of economic interests show his assets in farmland, timber and businesses are worth many millions of dollars. The holdings include 6,000 acres of corn, wheat and soybean. He also operates Doc’s BBQ, Millstone at Adams Pond — a high-end wedding and reception center — and Pawleys Front Porch in Five Points.

He declined to speak about his political views with a reporter, an ironic stance given that part of his family fortune came from the 1986 sale of the former State-Record Co., which was the state’s largest media group and known for pushing for openness and accountability in government.

On his campaign website, it states Finlay supported raising starting teacher pay to $40,000, up from $36,000, and supported a ban on texting while driving, which has so far failed to pass.

Earlier this year, he led a successful push with Richland County Democratic Reps. Todd Rutherford and Seth Rose to obtain a $20 million state earmark to help alleviate traffic tie-ups caused by railroad trains running through Columbia.

Finlay sits on the powerful House Ways and Means Committee, whose members play an outsized role in setting state tax and spending policies, including divvying up millions in taxpayer dollars for earmarks, often called pet projects.

His Democratic challenger Bauer, 38, was raised in a mobile home by a single mother on welfare.

She attended the University of Indiana of Pennsylvania, with the help of a volleyball scholarship, and moved to South Carolina in 2007 to get her master’s degree at University of South Carolina. She works for Benefitfocus, a publicly-traded software firm which manages employee benefits. She also has an interest in a martial arts studio off Shop Road and is a fitness and martial arts practitioner.

Bauer has never held public office.

In 2020, she lost a primary to Bailey for Finlay’s House seat, and in 2021 she ran an unsuccessful campaign for Columbia City Council. Bauer has also served on various local boards and is active in Columbia’s arts community, her website says.

Finlay, with his long legislative record and personal and political ties around Columbia, has raised far more money than Bauer.

Finlay raised more than $184,000 since January 2021, which includes more than 90 contributions of $1,000 over the two-year campaign cycle, according to public fundraising reports.

Bauer, who announced her bid earlier this year, reported raising $51,000 in cash contributions this cycle.

“We’re getting the support we need,” Bauer said, smiling, when asked about her fundraising shortfall. “We’re going to win because the stakes are so high. The extreme abortion ban is not what South Carolinians want.”

Can a Democrat win District 75?

Bauer has acknowledged that Finlay has more money, powerful connections and a history of knocking off Democratic candidates, including Bailey last year and Columbia lawyers Joe McCulloch and John Crangle in prior years.

But “abortion is a red alarm extreme issue” that affects Republicans and Democrats alike, Bauer said.

“Many Republican women are passionate about this issue,” Bauer said. “They say they don’t want the government making decisions for them, and I expect them to vote for me.”

State Democratic Party Chairman Trav Robertson agrees.

In addition to party and gender dynamics favoring Bauer, nearly half of House District 75’s registered voters are 45 and younger, Robertson said. And although women may have given Finlay the thin margin of victory in 2020, he won’t have that kind of support this year, Robertson predicted.

“Women are now going to say, ‘I don’t believe Kirkman Finlay knows more about my freedom and my body than I do and my doctor,’” Robertson said.

Drew McKissick, chairman of the South Carolina Republican Party, strongly disagrees, instead predicting a Finlay win.

“Kirkman is a known quantity; people in the district support him,” McKissick said. “In what is nominally speaking a purple district, he’s a Republican and continues to gain the support of people who trust him, and I expect that to continue.

“He’s actually got experience creating jobs, and as a legislator he’s helping put taxpayers’ money back in their own pockets. His opposition certainly doesn’t have that,” McKissick said. “She’s trying to make him out to be some kind of radical, and that’s just a load of garbage.”

One of Finlay’s closest allies, Joe Taylor, who sits on Columbia City Council, also defended his longtime friend from criticism, saying Finlay puts the needs of the people in the city “ahead of anything else.”

“With his senior seat on the House Ways and Means Committee, he has the clout to get the money for city projects,” Taylor said. “He led the charge to get the $20 million in state funds for the elimination of the rail crossings, which is the city’s No. 1 priority. He cares about working folks, as much as anything else.”

Taylor also credited Finlay with helping to get Daniel Coble, the nonpartisan son of former Democratic Mayor Bob Coble, now a lobbyist, elected state judge this year.

“Those are the sides of Kirkman that no one realizes,” Taylor said.

But Bailey, who in 2020 nearly beat Finlay, said no one should dismiss Bauer’s chances.

“People underestimated my campaign in 2020, and we came close to beating him,” Bailey said. “Anyone who underestimates her (Bauer) does so at their peril.”