Another Thurmond in wings

With Graham leaving no doubt he will give up the 3rd District seat he has held since 1994 to run for the Senate in two years, speculation is already starting on a possible GOP successor. By far, the most-talked-of possibility is the young man with obvious statewide name recognition: 26-year-old J. Strom Thurmond, Jr., oldest son of the 97-year-old senator and an attorney with the area solicitor's office in the Thurmond hometown of Aiken.

A graduate of the University of South Carolina and its law school and married to onetime high school sweetheart Heather, young Thurmond would no doubt get a huge boost from his father's all-out support. "This would be a wonderful last campaign for Sen. Thurmond," a Columbia attorney and friend of the young Thurmond told me. "But I'm not sure J. Strom would really have to do anything to win other than put his name on the ballot."

Copyright Human Events Publishing, Inc. Mar 3, 2000
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