John_E._Courson

John Courson

John Courson

American politician


John E. Courson (born November 21, 1944) is a former American politician. He served as a Republican member of the South Carolina Senate, representing the 20th District from 1985 to 2018. He resigned after pleading guilty to a common law misconduct charge in office.[2]

Quick Facts Preceded by, Succeeded by ...

Early life and education

John Courson was born on November 21, 1944, and graduated from the University of South Carolina in 1968.

Career

He has served as a Republican state senator for South Carolina from 1985 to 2018. In 1998, he ran for Comptroller General of South Carolina, but lost to Jim Lander.[3]

He was elected President Pro Tempore of the South Carolina Senate on March 13, 2012,[4] but resigned this office on June 4, 2014, to avoid becoming Lieutenant Governor, a weak position that needed to be filled for six months before a new Lieutenant Governor was elected in 2014.[5]

Resignation

In March 2017, during the South Carolina Statehouse corruption investigation, Courson was indicted on ethics charges for mishandling campaign funds and subsequently suspended from office.[6] He resigned June 4, 2018, after pleading guilty to such charges.[2]

Personal life

He is married to Elizabeth Poinsett Exum, and they have three children: James Poinsett, Elizabeth Boykin, and Harris Russell. He is Episcopalian.


References

  1. "South Carolina Legislature Online - Member Biography".
  2. Strope, Leigh (1998-11-05). "Candidates edgy waiting on tally". The Charlotte Observer. p. 68. Retrieved 2022-07-01 โ€“ via newspapers.com.
  3. Smith, G. N. (March 13, 2012). "Columbia senator is Senate's new top dog". The State. Archived from the original on 2019-01-23.
  4. Monk, John (March 16, 2017). "SC state Sen. Courson indicted on misconduct allegations, vows to fight the charges". The State. Retrieved 2023-05-03.



Share this article:

This article uses material from the Wikipedia article John_E._Courson, and is written by contributors. Text is available under a CC BY-SA 4.0 International License; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.