A longtime fixture of South Carolina’s Democratic Party and former lawyer for convicted murderer Alex Murdaugh was defeated in Tuesday night’s primary for state Senate.
Dick Harportrian, who has served as a Democrat in the South Carolina State Senate since 2018, narrowly lost the primary to opponent Russell Ott. The Post and Courier reported.
Ott, a state representative for South Carolina’s 93rd Congressional District, received 51 percent of the vote to Harpootlian’s 49 percent, which is expected to avoid an automatic recount, although Harpootlian may have to pay for it.
“We just did something that a lot of people didn’t think we could do,” Ott told supporters gathered on election night. “We spoke to everybody. And I think that made a little bit of a difference in this race, because we tried really hard.”
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Alex Murdaugh, left, conferred with attorney Dick Harportrian on the 25th day of Murdaugh’s double murder trial, Monday, Feb. 27, 2023, in Colleton County Courthouse. (Jeff Blake/The State/Pool)
Harportrian, who served as chairman of the South Carolina Democratic Party from 2011 to 2013, held a press conference Wednesday morning to announce that he would concede defeat to Ott and congratulate her on her victory.
Harportrian, 75, became a national celebrity in recent years after decades in South Carolina politics when he represented attorney Alex Murdaugh in his double murder trial and was convicted of killing his wife and son.
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Alex Murdaugh, left, talks with his attorney, Dick Harportrian, during Murdaugh’s double murder trial, Monday, Feb. 6, 2023, at the Colleton County Courthouse in Walterboro, South Carolina. (Jeff Blake/The State/Pool)
Murdaugh was sentenced to life in prison in 2023.
Harportrian, the wife of Biden’s appointee to ambassador to Slovenia, Jamie Harportrian, has said she truly believes Murdaugh did not murder his wife and son. In 2018, Harportrian’s campaign ran an ad narrated by now-President Biden that said Harportrian was a “good friend” and someone he’d known “for a long time.”
AdvertisingThe post, which included several framed photos of Biden and Harportrian together, continued:[Harpootlian] He is a warrior who will stop at nothing to get things done and make South Carolina a better place.”
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Attorney Dick Harportrian, right, and attorney Jim Griffin speak after their client Alex Murdaugh was found guilty on all counts for the murders of his wife and son, Thursday, March 2, 2023, in Colleton County Court. (Joshua Boucher/The State/Pool)
“I’ve defended a lot of guilty people in my life,” he told an audience at CrimeCon last year. “Some of them were found innocent, and that’s great. Some of them were found guilty, and that’s fine. I did my best. In the last 50 years, I’ve never had an innocent client convicted, except for this case.”
Ott openly criticized Harportrian, who is a sitting state senator but not an incumbent because his district has shifted, for agreeing to have the disgraced lawyer defend him.
