COLUMBIA, S.C. — When Rob Harris unseated longtime South Carolina House member Rita Allison last year he said, “We’re going to change some things, so people better buckle up.”
Since he took office in December, he’s started his march toward change, but it remains to be seen how many people are buckling up.
He’s voted against many of the things his Republican colleagues favor and voted for things they dislike. This week, he wanted to take South Carolina out of an organization designed to keep voter rolls up to date, saying it was a failure and the state could did a better job on its own.
He was asked during debate whether he trusted the results of the 2020 presidential election and he said he did not. The House majority tabled the measure.
And he has gotten the most publicity for a measure many in conservative South Carolina consider too conservative. He has filed a bill along with more than 20 co-sponsors to make abortion all but illegal by pronouncing life starts at conception, meaning abortion would be murder, punishable in South Carolina by at least 30 years in prison with a maximum sentence of death.
Harris knows something about a decision to seek an abortion. On a <a href="<iframe src="https://www.facebook.com/plugins/post.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Frobertjanice.harris%2Fposts%2Fpfbid02q9WYEk4NJRgnp9B2RpEivU2q5VYwYqpvbi5GtJSw8d8ondpU4pvoZqYDyobgACvCl&show_text=true&width=500" width="500" height="682" style="border:none;overflow:hidden" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="true" allow="autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; picture-in-picture; web-share"></iframe>" target="_blank">Facebook page carrying he and his wife’s names, a post says when Janice Harris was pregnant with the young man they now know as Samson, a specialist told them he would be “born retarded or with Down syndrome.” The doctor advised abortion.
“None of that mattered to us anyway and nothing could have been further from the truth. He is a living testament to the Sovereign hand of God and His perfect plan for Samson’s life. We love him, admire his testimony in the public realm and within our family and we know that he was born for such a time as this!”
The post indicated that Samson Harris’ plumbing business had joined Businesses for Liberty, a group that says it advertises for 150 businesses in 15 states so like-minded, pro-life consumers can do business with them.
On his own Facebook page, Harris wrote last month, “I stand unequivocally for life at conception. The ‘establishment’ doesn’t like that one bit. That’s why they’ve spent a lot of money lately on a smear campaign to assert that I am not fighting for the pre-born.”
Rep. Harris did not return messages seeking comment for this story about his life and career and detailing how he came to unseat a conservative woman who has been high profile in South Carolina politics for decades.
Allison served from 1992 until 2002 when she went to work in the administration of Gov. Mark Sanford. She ran and won the seat again in 2009 and then lost to Harris in the Republican primary last year.
“It was a heavy lift from the beginning. We pulled this campaign off in nine short weeks,” Harris told the Spartanburg Herald Journal at the time. “The boots on the ground is what did it.”
He gave a lot of credit to volunteers including his 10 kids — seven girls and three boys.
“They are hammers, and we hammered through this,” he said.
He is a nurse, and has been registered in South Carolina since 2008, according to state records.
He and his wife bought their house on 7 acres in Wellford in Spartanburg County in 2009, county tax records show. A one-story brick ranch, it includes seven bedrooms and four baths, according to real estate listings. Janice Harris told an interviewer they have a 15-foot dining table made by her husband and sons of red oak from their property.
There is a barn and chicken coop on the property and videos posted by his daughters, called Sea-Gals, show a large vegetable garden.
They have multiple grandchildren and home-schooled their children over 30 years.
Janice Harris owns a business called Keepers at Home Boutique, a reference to a Biblical passage encouraging women to “love their husbands, to love their children, to be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed.”
She and her daughters sew various products including clothing and home furnishing from workspace in there home. Not long ago, they showed an expanded workspace needed because of the growing business.
During COVID-19, they also made masks.
On the Keepers at Home website, Mrs. Harris said, “We are a busy large family that works hard at being ‘producers’ rather than just ‘consumers.’”
She said she started sewing when she was pregnant with her first child, “making maternity clothes to save money and then creating matching mother daughter outfits for myself and our little girls.”
She began a small business out of their home in the early 1990s called “Jumpers by Janice,” she said.
“We now have a few who LOVE to sew as much as their Mama, praise the Lord!” she wrote.
The Harrises are originally from Pennsylvania. They have been active in various rallies and programs for conservative causes.
He is a member of the South Carolina Freedom Caucus, which was formed about a year ago, and is similar to caucuses in 10 states formed through the State Freedom Caucus Network.
In South Carolina, the group intends to fight excessive state spending, push for socially conservative proposals and take on both Democrats and Republicans who they believe don’t fully support their ideals.
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