Mount Pleasant Magazine March/April 2016

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construction era in 1876, when African-American Joseph
Rainey was re-elected to his fourth term. Reconstruction
ended the following year when federal troops were with-
drawn from the South and Rainey was defeated in the
election of 1878.
Mr. Hartnett Goes toWasHinGton
While Ronald Reagan was changing the national
political landscape with his landslide victory in 1980,
Tommy Hartnett was doing some landscaping of his own
back in Charleston. In running for Congress in the 1st
District, he was
challenging 102
years of Demo-
cratic control and
also a well-known
opponent. Charles
“Pug” Ravenel had
run unsuccessfully
for governor in
1974 and against
Strom Thurmond
for a seat in the
U.S. Senate in
1978. Hartnett
won a close race
and moved the
family to the
Washington area.
“It was a
thrilling time for
the whole fam-
ily. The kids were
young, Bonnie
was young. I was
excited about it,” Hartnett recalled. “We packed up at
Christmas in 1980, rented a house in Alexandria and
moved up there. Everyone was enthusiastic.”
Hartnett was elected as the president of an excep-
tionally large freshman class of congressional Republi-
cans, a position that gave him much more access than
most newly-elected congressmen.
“I got to meet with the president, fly on Air Force One,
sit in the cabinet room with the president and the leaders
of the party,” explained Hartnett. “I really liked that, but it
wore on me family-wise and otherwise constantly coming
back and forth to Washington.”
During his campaign, Hartnett had pledged to serve no
more than three terms – a promise he kept – but his wife
and children only made it through the first term. After two
years, they moved back to their home in Wild Dunes, and,
during the rest of his time in Congress, Hartnett rented
a small apartment within walking distance of the Capitol
and flew home on weekends.
“It’s not a very family-oriented profession,” explained
Hartnett.
As promised, Hartnett limited himself to three terms
in Congress, returning to South Carolina and running for
lieutenant governor in 1986. He narrowly lost that race to
Democrat Nick Theodore.
Hartnett made one more run for office, this time for the
U.S. Senate against
fellow Isle of Palms
resident Fritz Hol-
lings.
“That was a
wonderful race. I
had more fun in
doing that than
any other politi-
cal thing I’ve ever
done, even though
I lost it,” recalled
Hartnett. “Nobody
thought I could
win – and I proved
that they were
right – but if I had
a little more help
financially I could
have. I lost that
race by less than 1
percent statewide. I
got more votes for
the Senate in South
Carolina and lost than anybody had ever gotten to that
point and won. The turnout was huge.”
Some might find it awkward to lose such a close elec-
tion and then have to live in the same neighborhood as
your opponent, but Tommy Hartnett isn’t one of those
people. Hartnett and Hollings have a long history, and
one election, no matter how contentious it seemed, was
unlikely to cause a permanent rift.
In fact, Hartnett’s first political activity was volunteer-
ing for Hollings’ unsuccessful attempt to win a seat in the
U.S. Senate in 1962. Two years later, Hollings was among
the first to contribute to Hartnett’s run for the Statehouse.
Hollings was at Hartnett’s wedding, and Hartnett helped
Hollings’ daughters get jobs as pages in the State Legislature.
“We’ve stayed friendly, and that’s the way it should be
Bonnie and Tommy Hartnett with President Richard Nixon.
Photo provided by Tommy Hartnett.