There are no women on Horry County Council. Now, 4 are running to oust the ‘good ol’ boys’
It’s been more than 11 years since a woman sat on Horry County Council, voting on issues of local development, taxes and public safety.
That could change in 2022. As of Wednesday, four Republican women had announced campaigns for seats on the County Council or for the countywide chair’s seat.
Liz Gilland, the former chairwoman of the council, was the last woman to sit on the dais before she walked away in 2010. She recounted the harsh political climate she faced as the only woman on the council and was elated when she heard that so many women were running this year.
“That absolutely delights me,” she said. “It’s meaningful because half the population is women and they need to be represented. But also, women think differently from men.”
Who are they?
▪ Shannon Grady, a Realtor, on Friday plans to announce a run for the District 8 County Council seat in the Forestbrook area. Council member Johnny Vaught currently holds that seat but is running for chair, meaning his district seat is open. A member of the county Planning Commission previously announced a run for that seat.
▪ Jenna Dukes, a pharmacist, on Tuesday announced she would run for the District 1 seat in North Myrtle Beach, challenging longtime council member Harold Worley.
▪ Jeanette Spurlock, previously a candidate for Congress, on Tuesday announced she would end that race and instead seek the council’s District 7 seat in Conway, against council member Orton Bellamy. Bellamy is currently the only Black member of the council.
▪ Katrina Morrison of North Myrtle Beach announced last week she would throw in for chair of County Council, challenging incumbent Johnny Gardner. Vaught and former council chairman Mark Lazarus have also announced campaigns for the seat.
In interviews, some of the candidates said they felt Horry County Council had fallen into the hands of “good ole boys” who didn’t adequately represent their constituents. Others said they weren’t focused on the fact they are a woman running for office, but rather on bringing unity and new leadership to the county.
“I think its time for some strong conservative women to step up and run,” Grady said. “You get a lock-step mentality when you have everybody from the same ideology. We need to make sure we have some diversity.”
What’s more, all four women are also transplants to Horry County, a representation of the major demographic shifts the region has seen in recent decades.
Since the first Horry County Council was elected in 1976, only four women, including Gilland, have served on the council, according to county data. It’s a similar pattern for minorities. The council has had only three non-white members over its nearly 50-year history.
That doesn’t mean, though, that women have been absent from Horry County leadership. The county’s two elected tax offices — auditor and treasurer — are currently held by women, Beth Calhoun and Angie Jones, respectively.
Horry has also boasted several women lawmakers, including current state Rep. Heather Ammons Crawford and the late Lois Eargle, who also served as the county’s auditor for years.
Still, Gilland and some of the candidates agreed, its significant to have so many women running in this spring’s Republican primary.
“Women approach a problem differently and I think women are more willing to compromise (while) men want to win,” Gilland said. “You can make more progress incrementally with women than with men who get their backs up and won’t back down.”
The filing period ends next Wednesday, March 30. The primary election is June 14.
Katrina Morrison, Council Chair
Originally from New York, Morrison, a Little River resident, found her way to Horry County via her son, who attended Coastal Carolina University and currently works as a county firefighter.
Morrison, 55, is challenging Gardner for chair, she said, because she views the council as having placed developer interests over resident needs.
“They’ve overdeveloped,” she said. “They’ve set aside infrastructure issues for bigger projects like (Interstate) 73.”
Morrison previously worked as an insurance agent with Allstate before retiring to Ireland. While there, the 2008 market crash occurred and she went back to school, earning Ireland’s version of a law degree. She worked in Irish government for a period of time, studying issues of domestic violence and homicide before moving back to the States. She earned a legal dispute resolution certification from Northwestern University and a grant writing certification from the University of South Carolina.
Since moving to Horry County in 2015, Morrison has worked with nonprofits, homeless individuals and others on issues from medical care to housing to the foster care system. In an interview, she recounted helping a blind and homeless woman navigate the medical system after an injury and helping her find housing.
She said that work gives her a unique perspective and that she has “seen every walk of life in this county.”
Morrison has also been active on development issues and frequently argues at council meetings that the county should stick to its 2040 master plan more tightly, rather than adjusting it frequently to fit developer’s needs. She’s also sued the county over a rezoning request it approved last year.
She argued that conserving the county’s agricultural areas and its environment, like wetlands, is more important than approving every development that goes before the council. She supports “responsible” development, she said.
“We are destroying more resources of the county and it’s not benefiting anyone of the county except the developers,” she said. “It seems as though the leaders of the county are more concerned with developers than they are with the people.”
Morrison said she supports adding more police officers to the county’s roster, and wants the county to focus more on local roads and infrastructure, rather than I-73. That project could have Horry County spend millions each year if state and federal funds are also allocated.
“I’m here because of family and I love Horry County and I can’t sit back and watch it destroyed,” she said. “They’re not working for the people, that’s apparent, and if I get the seat that will change.”
Jenna Dukes, District 1
Hailing from West Virginia, Dukes, 36, works as a pharmacist and opened Cherry Grove Drug in 2018. Dukes attended West Virginia University for pharmacy school and would work at a chain pharmacy in North Myrtle Beach during the summers.
When she graduated, she said, she moved to North Myrtle Beach to work for a chain store full time, which she did for a decade. But she was frustrated with the limitations of a chain store and set off on her own. Dukes argued that her time as a pharmacist has set her up well to represent Grand Strand residents.
“People tell their pharmacist everything, whether they mean to or not,” she said. “I’m a community pharmacist, and I am very well positioned to be an ear for the people.”
Dukes will challenge longtime council member and former state representative Harold Worley, who also owns a number of businesses along Ocean Drive. She said she wanted to challenge Worley in part because she views him as contributing to discord among the county leaders.
“I feel that there is a lack of cohesiveness on council and he definitely contributes to that,” she said. “If council had a better cohesive feel and were in agreement that they were working for the people of Horry County, Horry County would be better off.”
Dukes argued that the council should do more to respond to the county’s rapid growth and should spend more money on infrastructure for residents. She doesn’t oppose halting growth, though, she said. That would send a message that Horry County is “closed,” she said.
“We have to be able to get the necessary infrastructure in place to accommodate that growth whether that be working with the state to get more roads done or to get more parks and public transportation,” she said. “It seems like over the last 20 years we’ve been reacting to growth and trying to chase our tail and we can’t keep up with it.”
Dukes said Horry County would need to have “skin in the game” if I-73 is ever to be constructed.
She also said it was “significant” that she’s running for the seat as a woman.
“I’m not a feminist but as a female, women bring a different outlook to the table. Men and women compliment each other,” she said. “Adding females to the mix of County Council is going to give you that compliment.”
Jeanette Spurlock, District 7
Orignally from Ohio, Spurlock, 50, has been an Horry County resident since she moved to the area after high school. She entered politics last year when she joined the crowded primary field against U.S. Rep. Tom Rice but said she was “shifting” her focus to county politics instead.
Spurlock will go against Bellamy, the only Black member of the council. She criticized Bellamy for changing parties from Democrat to Republican in recent years, and for recruiting the Democratic member of the county’s redistricting commission last year.
In a statement announcing her race, she called Bellamy a RINO — a Republican In Name Only. She argued that Bellamy and other council members haven’t done enough to address the county’s growth and its infrastructure needs.
“We’re looking at a council with some gentlemen who have been on the council for a while and were dealing with the same issues,” she said.
A Conway resident, Spurlock said she wants to see the county do more to address flooding, whether that’s dredging its waterways, building a diversion canal or some other fix. She said raising homes above flood waters isn’t enough.
“Can we get this water redirected?” she asked. “Is there something we can do on the levels of the water?”
Spurlock said she supports widening S.C. 90 and building another bridge over the Waccamaw River. She said she’s “not an environmentalist” and supports finding a balance between building and preservation.
During her congressional campaign, Spurlock pitched herself as a working-class resident who could speak to residents’ needs, and plans to take a similar approach in this race. Spurlock, a single mother, has worked in a number of jobs, including as a business manager, during her time in Horry County.
She said she doesn’t oppose the idea of I-73, but worries the county’s lack of infrastructure could turn certain roads into “parking lots” if the project isn’t planned carefully.
She also said she’d like to see the county fund more recreation centers and programs for youth outside of sports, and added that the county should serve veterans and the elderly better, too.
“Some (kids) are artsy, some like music,” she said. “We need to cater better to the youth in the area.”
Shannon Grady, District 8
Grady, from Clover, S.C. who works as a real estate agent, came to Horry County in 2017 after retiring as an educator. She’s been active in Republican politics since then, and said she chose to run to address the county’s infrastructure needs and its “good ol’ boy situation.”
Grady, 51, argued that Horry County needs to do a better job of balancing its rapid growth with building infrastructure, like roads.
“The growth and the building, we need to let the infrastructure catch up,” she said. “We need to work on our roads. I’m all for growth and progress but we have to do it in a managed way.”
Grady said she believes county representatives have forgotten about representing residents, something she would be better at.
She said she supports preserving the environment and balancing it with growth. She said she appreciates “the developers who want to sink millions and billions of dollars into Horry County” but that county leaders can’t overlook “the one resource we have and that’s land.”
Grady said she supports building additional sidewalks and expanding public transportation, and said she wasn’t “opposed” to I-73.
“I’m not opposed to I-73 in its entirely (but) we have to have the funding and right now its not available,” she said. “We can’t expect it to be 100% on the backs of the folks here.”
County Planning Commission member Mikey Masciarelli is also running for the District 8 seat. Gerri McDaniel, a longtime player in South Carolina conservative politics, is helping Grady run her campaign.
Grady said it was significant that so many women are running for county council positions this year, but added that she doesn’t “want anybody to vote for my lady parts, I want people to vote for my lady smarts.”
“2017 was supposed to be the year of women and it really hasn’t been,” she said. “It’s time that women step up and run.”
Editor’s note: This story has been updated to reflect that Morrison lives in Little River.
This story was originally published March 24, 2022 at 4:55 AM.
