A few quick facts on Senator Harvey S. Peeler, Jr., upon whom the character of Senator Phillips is loosely based:

• Dairyman/Businessman
• Born September 8, 1948 in Gaffney
• Clemson University, B.S., 1970
• August 8, 1969 married Ila LaDonna Caudill, 3 children, Brantlee Rene, Harvey Smith III, and Boone Solomon
• Member of Gaffney First Baptist Church
• Mason
• Shriner
• American Jersey Cattle Association
• American Legion
• Senate Majority Leader, 2005-
• Lieutenant, United States Army, 1970-72

More information, including Sen. Peeler’s voting record and committee memberships can be found on the official website for the South Carolina Legislature.

TWITTER ~ Sravya shares Sen. Peeler’s Twitter feed, for insight.

Here, an article in The State by Andrew Shain, reports on Sen. Peeler’s surprise resignation in April, 2016, illuminating the political environment in South Carolina state legislature:

SC Sen. Harvey Peeler stepping down as majority leader

In a surprise move, S.C. Sen. Harvey Peeler, R-Cherokee, said Tuesday that he is stepping down immediately as majority leader after 11 years.

The out-spoken dairy farmer told reporters that he needed to concentrate on a rare primary challenge for the seat he’s held for 36 years and wanted to share some of leadership responsibilities in the Senate.

Peeler, who chairs the medical affairs committee, told Republican senators about his decision shortly before meeting with reporters at noon. Several senators tried to get Peeler to reconsider leaving the Republican leadership post.

Peeler did not endorse a successor, who will be chosen Wednesday.

“Let The Hunger Games begin,” he joked.

Three senators have expressed interest in succeeding Peeler: Sen. Ronnie Cromer, a Newberry Republican who chairs the rules committee; Sen. Larry Grooms, a Berkeley Republican who chairs the transportation committee; and Sen. Shane Massey, an Edgefield Republican who is considered a rising state star in the party.

The Senate majority leader gets to select a one of the six members to committees that negotiate differences in bills between the House and Senate and leads the party caucus to help in elections.

The majority leader also works to whip support among GOP senators, a tougher task in recent years as Senate Republicans have broken into factions along ideological and age lines.

Republican senators were surprised last month that they managed to stick together on a roads-funding bill.

Sen. John Courson, a Richland Republican and former Senate president pro tempore, said Peeler managed the job well politically: “He’s not done anything to embarrass the Republican members of the Senate.”

Peeler said his decision to step away from his leadership role had nothing to do with disagreements with Senate President Pro Tempore Hugh Leatherman, a Florence Republican who is the chamber’s leader and chair the budget-writing committee.

Peeler, who is vice chairman of the budget-writing committee, has criticized the amount of power that Leatherman holds, even asking the senator to resign his role as president pro tempore last year. They clashed again this year over the roads funding bill.

Peeler succeeded Leatherman as Senate majority leader in 2005 after the Florence senator resigned amid disputes with fellow Republicans over tax proposals.

“It’s a difficult job, and he has served with distinction,” Leatherman said in a statement Tuesday.

Peeler, the third-longest tenured state senator, said that he wants to become the Senate’s “quality control manager,” citing recent dysfunction inside the chamber and in working with the S.C. House.

The 67-year-old senator said he would like to serve as an adviser to his successor.

“I wish I had a Harvey Peeler by my side for the past 11 years,” Peeler said.

Peeler is known for his quips about his hometown of Gaffney, often tweeting homespun sayings that he calls “Gaffnese.”

“Asking a man which child he loves the most is like asking him which eye he loves the most. #gaffnese,” Peeler tweeted in May.

Kenny Price of Boiling Springs is Peeler’s first Republican primary challenger in at least 20 years, according to S.C. election records Price, a 51-year-old who does not work because he suffers from cerebral palsy, did not have much of a reaction to the news about Peeler stepping down as majority leader.

“If that is Sen. Peeler’s choice that he made, then that’s his decision,” Price said.

Governmental track record: https://ballotpedia.org/Harvey_Peeler