She’s in the SC House. He’s on county council. They’re married, and both were reelected.

She’s in the state house.

He’s on county council.

And on Tuesday, both Heather Ammons Crawford and her husband, Cam Crawford, were poised to be reelected together to represent the Socastee area, Ammons Crawford in the South Carolina House of Representatives, and Crawford on Horry County Council. Their districts largely fall in unincorporated Horry County territory, meaning they’re the primary elected representatives for the people who live there.

It’ll be the couple’s second time being reelected together, as Ammons Crawford seeks a third term in the state legislature and Crawford seeks a second full-length term. The pair now have more than a dozen years between them representing the Socastee area, and said that having both of them in elected office has streamlined parts of their work and has allowed them to better represent their constituents.

Even living together helps. If someone calls Ammons Crawford about a county issue, she can hand the phone to her husband. And if someone calls Crawford about a state issue, he hands it back. It helps that Crawford’s entire county district is within Ammons Crawford’s house district.

“We share a lot of constituents, a lot of folks that we represent, and certainly if I have someone that calls me and they have an issue and it’s county related, it’s very easy for me to get the county councilman on the phone and help them with that,” Ammons Crawford said.

Is it politics all the time?

Ammons Crawford was first elected in July 2012 in a special election, after former state Rep. Thad Viers left the seat to run for Congress. Viers later dropped out of his congressional race after he was indicted on stalking and harassment charges. Crawford followed in his wife’s footsteps several years later. In 2015, when he ran to fill the open County Council seat left vacant by Bob Grabowski, who died while still in office. Both Crawfords then ran for reelection in 2016.

The pair, who both grew up in the Socastee area, met while they were both members of the Grand Strand Young Republicans and began dating in 2008, marrying three years later in 2011.

Though they’re both in office and often work on the same issues, it’s not all politics all the time. Since getting married, they’ve made it a point to leave the politics “at the door” and focus on time with family.

“You gotta cut it off. It doesn’t matter what kind of work you do, right? You gotta cut it off at some point,” Ammons Crawford said. “You gotta decompress, you have to enjoy life, you have to enjoy family. It’s not like we at dinner every night, or we sit around every night, talking about politics or this issue or that issue.”

But that’s not to say they never talk about work. Sometimes, Crawford says, it’s easier to be in a relationship where his wife knows the trials of being in office.

“At times it can be very rigorous and I think one thing that’s helped us is the fact that because she’s in office and I’m in office, I feel like she gets what I’m dealing with and what I’m going through, and I get what she’s going through,” Crawford said. “Whereas if it’s just one of you there … all these crazy things are happening, [your] spouse may not be able to fully relate to that.”

Flooding, domestic violence and veterans

Since the Crawfords have been in office many issues in the area have overlapped in the county and state governments.

They’ve been prioritizing the flooding issues in Socastee since the area was hit hard by Hurricane Matthew in 2016 and Hurricane Florence two years later. Their home flooded and they were displaced for nine months, which they say puts them on the same level as their constituents.

“I cannot describe to you what it is like to watch the water from the river just consume your home. It never gets easier to talk about it,” Ammons Crawford said. “Unfortunately, many of our neighbors understand that feeling, we understand that as well, we’ve been through it, we’ve just been working to address the flood issue so it is a very challenging and grueling process when you deal with something like that physically, mentally, emotionally, financially.”

Ammons Crawford worked with Senator Stephen Goldfinch to pass a bill that would allow local governments to make funding from the Federal Emergency Management Agency more accessible in the event that flooding happens again. The bill has been passed, but the funding has yet to be secured due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Through her time in office, Ammons Crawford has also pushed to fund Horry County’s first domestic violence shelter, but plans have been delayed as the pandemic halted the approval of a state budget. She hopes to secure the $1.5 million for the shelter in the next budget cycle, which the House will begin discussing in January.

The pair has also worked together on getting a Veteran’s Administration nursing home located in the Myrtle Beach area. Ammons Crawford was part of an effort to secure funding for the project, and Crawford will be one of the decision makers on where it’s located.

Along with working for flood relief, Crawford has focused on raises for Horry County police, firefighters, dispatchers and sheriffs. He hopes to move the county into a “payscale” system over the next few years, which he says is better equipped for a county the size of Horry. He was also successful in prioritizing the widening Forestbrook Road and expanding Palmetto Pointe Boulevard in the area as part of the county’s Ride III program.

'Responsive' politicians

For their constituents, the Crawfords represent stable and accessible leadership, several people said Tuesday.

For John Smith, the home owners association president of the Silver Creek community and a friend of the Crawfords, said the couple is always quick to get on the phone when he has a question.

One time, Smith said, a friend of his was concerned about drivers speeding in their neighborhood, which is near a school. Smith was able to connect his friend with Crawford, who was able to give advice on how they might get “no speeding” signs put up.

“They’ve always been for the community in which they live and have been for their whole life, they’ve always been really responsive any time I’ve had an issue,” Smith said outside his polling location in Socastee on Tuesday. “They’re laid back and they’ll help you if they can help you.”

Sharon Landren, a Socastee resident, Ammons Crawford is a good representative because she’s a stable leader, unlike other politicians Landren reads about and sees on TV. As Ammons Crawford ran in her primary campaign in the spring and summer, Landren said she was impressed by how Ammons Crawford conducted herself.

“She was more about her leadership rather than about the opponents’ problems, and I liked that,” she said. “To me, I’d rather see a clean fight than a nasty fight like the presidents have.”

This story was originally published November 4, 2020 at 10:01 AM.