A longtime fixture in the South Carolina Democratic Party and the former lawyer for convicted murderer Alex Murdaugh was defeated in a primary for state senator on Tuesday night.
Dick Harpootlian, who has served as a Democrat in the South Carolina state Senate since 2018, was defeated by primary opponent Russell Ott in a narrow race, The Post and Courier reported.
Ott, a state representative from South Carolina’s 93rd district, brought in 51% of the vote, compared to Harpootlian’s 49%, and is expected to avoid an automatic recount, although Harpootlian could pay for one.
“We just did something a lot of people didn’t think we were going to be able to do,” Ott told his supporters gathered on election night. “We talked to everyone, and I think that’s what the razor-thin difference in this race was, because we put in the hard work.”
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Harpootlian, who served as chair of the South Carolina Democratic Party from 2011 to 2013, delivered a press conference on Wednesday morning announcing he was conceding to Ott and congratulating him on his victory.
Harpootlian, 75, became a national figure in recent years after decades in South Carolina politics when he represented attorney Alex Murdaugh in a double murder trial where Murdaugh was eventually convicted of killing his wife and son.
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Murdaugh was sentenced to life in prison in 2023.
Harpootlian, who is married to Jamie Harpootlian, a Biden-appointed ambassador to Slovenia, has said he truly believes that Murdaugh did not kill his wife and son. In 2018, Harpootlian’s campaign released an ad narrated by now-President Biden saying Harpootlian was his “good friend” and that he had known him for a “long time.”
The ad, which included several framed photographs of Biden and Harpootlian together, went on to say, “[Harpootlian] is a fighter who stops at nothing to get things done and make South Carolina a much better place.”
“I’ve represented many, many, many guilty people,” he told the audience at CrimeCon last year. “A number of them have been acquitted and that’s great. A number of them have been convicted and that’s OK. I did the best I could. I’ve never had an innocent client convicted except for this one for 50 years.”
Ott publicly criticized Harpootlian, who was not an incumbent despite being a sitting state senator due to his district being moved, for agreeing to defend the disgraced lawyer.
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