Paul Thurmond

Paul Reynolds Thurmond (born January 9, 1976) is an American politician from the state of South Carolina. A member of the Republican Party, Thurmond is a former member of the South Carolina Senate. His father, Strom Thurmond, served in the United States Senate for 48 years.

Paul Reynolds Thurmond was born to Nancy (née Moore) and Strom Thurmond on January 9, 1976, the couple's fourth child. Strom was 73 years old at the time of Paul's birth. In February 1976, Strom enrolled Paul in The Citadel for a 1993 admission. He attended Aiken High School in Aiken, South Carolina, and Vanderbilt University, where he received a scholarship to play tennis. He received his Juris Doctor, a law degree, from the University of South Carolina School of Law.

Thurmond served as an assistant solicitor in the Ninth Circuit Solicitor's Office, leaving the position in 2005 to open his own law firm Thurmond Kirchner Timbes & Yelverton, P.A. In 2006, he was elected to the Charleston County council. Though he initially announced he would leave politics in 2009, opting not to run for a second term as a councilman, Thurmond chose to run for a seat in the United States House of Representatives, representing South Carolina's 1st congressional district, following Henry E. Brown, Jr.'s retirement in 2010. Thurmond finished second in the Republican primary, forcing a runoff election against Tim Scott. Scott defeated Thurmond in the runoff.

Thurmond ran for the South Carolina Senate in 2012 to represent the 41st district. The seat was vacated by Glenn F. McConnell, who became Lieutenant Governor of South Carolina. Thurmond defeated Walter Hundley, who succeeded McConnell in a special election held in July 2012. Thurmond won the general election, defeating Paul Tinkler, a Charleston City Councilman and member of the Democratic Party, on November 6, 2012.

Thurmond did not seek re-election in 2016.

In a speech to the State Senate in July 2015, Thurmond called for the confederate flag to be permanently removed from the grounds of the State House. The move was triggered by the shooting at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal church in Charleston which occurred a month earlier, in which nine people—including Thurmond's colleague Clementa Pinckney—were killed. The massacre was carried out by white supremacist Dylann Roof, who was a prominent exhibitionist of the flag.

Thurmond has a wife, Katie, three sons and a daughter. He is the half brother of the late Essie Mae Washington-Williams through his father.