Former Aiken County state senator Michael Laughlin dies

Jun. 1—The man who became one of the youngest members of the South Carolina Senate died last Tuesday after an accident at his home.

Former S.C. Sen. Michael Laughlin represented parts of Aiken County in the South Carolina Senate from 1968 to 1976.

Laughlin was born in Aiken in 1944. He was the grandson of Thomas Laughlin, an executive with the Jones & Laughlin Steel Company. He graduated from Aiken Prep, the Brooks School in North Andover, Mass., and the University of Virginia.

Laughlin was in his mid-20s and a student at the University of South Carolina when he withdrew to enter the race for the South Carolina Senate in 1968.

A 1968 Aiken Standard article about his campaign says that Laughlin was recruited by the Democratic Party to run against a Republican incumbent.

From 1878 to 1964, the Democratic Party had a dominant position in South Carolina politics but in the 1960s the battles over desegregation began to push the state toward the Republican Party.

In 1968, the state's eight electoral votes went to Republican nominee and election winner Richard Nixon.

Despite the Republican triumph nationally and the election of six Republicans in the state senate for the first time since the 1890s in 1964, the Democrats were able to increase their majority in the senate in 1968.

Laughlin was one of the Democrats elected over Republicans that year. He received 14,196 votes to defeat the Republican incumbent who received 11,255 votes.

Toby Ward, Laughlin's attorney, said Laughlin often said that the Senate allowed him to take his seat despite his age.

A 1971 Aiken Standard article says that Laughlin was 24 when he was sworn in and the Senate had to pass a special resolution to allow him to serve because he wasn't yet 25, the minimum age for a state senator. The article notes that a similar resolution was passed in 1941 to allow W.J. Bryan Dorn — Dorn went on to represent the state's third Congressional district from 1951 to 1974 — to serve in the state Senate.

Laughlin was reelected to the state senate in 1970 and 1972, the year the state started having senate elections every four years instead of every two years.

Laughlin lost his reelection bid in 1976.

On March 1, 1976, Laughlin and another state senator announced at a Columbia news conference held with Gov. James Edwards, the first Republican elected governor since Reconstruction ended in 1876, that they were switching to the Republican Party.

Laughlin told Aiken Standard reporter Lin Smithwick that he felt the state Democratic Party was taking on more of the characteristics of the national party and becoming more liberal. He added his current views were more in line with the Republican Party.

In 1976, South Carolina's electoral votes went to Democratic nominee and eventual winner Jimmy Carter — this was the last time that the state's electoral votes went to a Democrat — and, in the words of Smithwick, the Democrats "dunked on the GOP contenders."

Republican Bill Knotts received 51,130 to Laughlin's 30,557 votes.

Ward added Laughlin devoted his time to his businesses and charity work after he lost the 1976 race.

Laughlin's business interests included aviation, two radio stations that he owned, automobile sales, media production and timber and equine activities.

He founded Eagle Aviation in 1967. The company would manage the Aiken airport several years and currently serves as the fixed base operator at both Columbia airports.

Laughlin also served on the South Carolina Aeronautics Commission. A report provided to the General Assembly in 1983 lists him as vice chairman of the commission.

A New York Times engagement announcement — Laughlin was married twice and had no children — says that Laughlin was president of Eagle Enterprises which included two radio stations. It adds that Laughlin was also president of Mill Race Farms.

In terms of charity, Laughlin was involved with the Green Boundary Club, Aiken Prep and the Hitchcock Woods Foundation.

A 1968 Aiken Standard article says that Laughlin was among the alumni working to improve the Aiken Prep's facilities.

Laughlin also served for four years on the board of the New Holland Volunteer Fire Department during the early 2010s.

New Holland Chief Dennis Jackson said Laughlin was a good guy and a great individual who donated the land for the department's station two.

Jackson said anything the department needed, Laughlin worked to provide. He added Laughlin would occasionally use his own money to provide the then-cash-strapped department with equipment and supplies.

Ward said that Laughlin also provided advice and support to friends, associates and acquaintances in business and political endeavors.