Kathryn Harvey, the Democratic nominee for the 4th Congressional District, speaks at a candidate forum in Boiling Springs, South Carolina on Thursday, Oct. 10, 2024. (Abraham Kenmore/SC Daily Gazette)
SPARTANBURG — Kathryn Harvey thought that someone should run against Republican U.S. Rep. William Timmons this year.
From her role as the chair of the Spartanburg County Democratic Party she saw Timmons, who represents the Upstate 4th Congressional District, as unusually vulnerable.
In 2022, an alleged affair and his now-ex-wife’s divorce filing became a very public scandal. And in Harvey’s view, he was not very present in the community.
So, when Harvey, 42, couldn’t get other candidates to run against him, she did.
“I’ve been laying the groundwork for somebody to run in this seat,” Harvey said in a recent interview with the SC Daily Gazette in her Spartanburg campaign headquarters. “And honestly, we just didn’t get to the finish line with other folks, and it became very apparent we couldn’t let this go unchallenged.”