Krystle Matthews

Krystle N. Matthews (née Simmons; born February 27, 1981) is an American politician and engineering planner. She is a former member of the South Carolina House of Representatives from the 117th district, serving from 2018 to 2022. She is a member of the Democratic Party.

Political career

Matthews was elected to the South Carolina House of Representatives in 2018, defeating incumbent Republican Bill Crosby. This made her the first Black woman to represent this district.

Matthews was a member of the Medical, Military, Public, and Municipal Affairs committee, and of the Operations and Management committee.

On April 12, 2021, Matthews announced her candidacy in the 2022 election for South Carolina's Class 3 seat in the United States Senate.

On June 26, 2022, audio of a prison phone call was released by the far-right activist group Project Veritas. On the recording, Matthews expresses a desire to accept money from drug dealers to fund her campaign and also calls for Democrats to run as "secret sleepers" in Republican primaries. She also instructed the inmate to use the name of somebody in their family rather than their own name, without the knowledge of the family member, when making the donation. Matthews won the primary runoff two days later. In reference to the recording, Matthews said, “Nothing I said was untrue. And everything I said are also things that I’ve already talked about throughout my campaign. I don't run from anything.” She described the phone call with the inmate as "tongue-in-cheek" and argued that she was not advocating for any illegal activities. She apologized for her language in a private conversation. Matthews won the Democratic primary in a June 28 runoff.

On September 8, 2022, Project Veritas again obtained a recording of Matthews making racist statements about White people, resulting in calls for her resignation by Republican South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson and fellow Democrat South Carolina State House Representative Justin Bamberg. In the recording, Representative Matthews states, "My district is slightly Republican, and it's heavily White. I'm no stranger to White people, I'm from a mostly White town. And let me tell you one thing. You oughta know who you're dealing with, like -- you gotta treat them like shit, like I mean that’s the only way they’ll respect you. I keep them right here, like under my thumbs. That's where I keep it. You have to, otherwise they get out of control, like kids." In a statement, Matthews confirmed that her voice is heard in the recording and characterized the incident as an attack, referring to Project Veritas as a "satirical MAGA Powered news outlet".

See also: 2022 South Carolina House of Representatives election, 2022 United States state legislative elections

In the 2022 general election, Matthews ran in two races simultaneously: the US Senate and the South Carolina House of Representatives races. She lost the Senate race to incumbent Tim Scott, and the South Carolina House of Representatives race to Republican challenger Jordan Pace.

Personal life

Matthews was born in Sandusky, Ohio and graduated from Sandusky High School in 1999. She currently resides in Ladson, South Carolina and has five children. She worked as an engineering planner until 2021.

Electoral history

2018

Matthews was the only Democrat in her district to run in 2018, so there was no Democratic primary.

2020