The stories are recorded on notebook pages, sticky notes, and backs of envelopes—whatever Thomas Alexander has handy as he meets and greets his constituents across the Golden Corner of South Carolina’s Upstate.
They tell of roads that need paving, charities that need funding, veterans who need help accessing their benefits.
For decades now, the state senator for Oconee and Pickens counties has collected these requests for help in little paper stacks. And at least once a week, over the course of his 150-mile drive to the Statehouse in Columbia, Alexander goes through each note one by one—phoning up his contacts in state government and trying to get the problems solved.
It’s this meticulous approach to constituent service that has propelled Alexander, 67, through a 40-year career in elected office, from his first position on city council in his native Walhalla to his current role as president of the S.C. Senate.
The Upstate Republican isn’t a household name throughout South Carolina. He doesn’t make headlines with provocative statements or call press conferences to boast about his achievements.
But colleagues and observers say Alexander’s record of working behind the scenes and across party lines to solve problems big and small for rural South Carolina sets him apart.
If you gained access to high-speed internet over the past few years, or obtained healthcare through Medicaid, or drove past Department of Transportation crews working on a major highway project, you have Alexander, in part, to thank—even though he is loath to accept the credit.
“He takes on the hard assignments,” Senate Majority Leader Shane Massey says. “He shows up. He works hard. But he is also smart and is willing to get into the details to get things done.”
For those reasons, South Carolina’s electric cooperatives voted recently to honor Alexander with their first-ever Electric Cooperative Outstanding Public Service Award. The new accolade will recognize distinguished leaders who have demonstrated unwavering support of the state’s electric cooperatives and the nearly 2 million South Carolinians who rely on their electricity.
“From time to time, we honor people for a single event, something they’ve done on one occasion,” says Mike Couick, president and CEO of The Electric Cooperatives of South Carolina. “This is for a lifetime body of service for Thomas Alexander. This is him day in, day out, month in, month out, showing up and getting things done.”
A life of service
Alexander’s commitment to service is rooted in his upbringing.
He grew up tagging along with his parents at civic club meetings in Walhalla, a city of just over 4,000 in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains.
His mother led the South Carolina district of the Pilot Club, a volunteer women’s group that helps people with brain-related disorders and disabilities. Once Alexander was old enough to drive, she conscripted him into ferrying her to meetings and conferences all over the state.
At one such event in Columbia, Alexander remembers watching testimonial videos of people the Pilot Club had assisted. A notion sank in: One person’s service could radically improve another’s life.
Alexander began a lifelong quest to help.
He campaigned and interned for legendary U.S. Sen. Strom Thurmond, whose penchant for constituent service Alexander would later mirror.
After graduating from Clemson University with a bachelor’s degree in economics, Alexander served as a deacon and Sunday school teacher at Walhalla Presbyterian Church, joined the Walhalla Chamber of Commerce board and did stints as president of the city’s Sertoma Club and Lions Club.
He was elected to Walhalla City Council in 1981, where he became fascinated with the management of police, fire and utility services. But his craving to make a larger impact led him to the S.C. House in 1986 and the state Senate eight years later.
Along the way, he developed into the ultimate retail politician. In Oconee and Pickens counties, Alexander is a staple at birthday parties, weddings, and town halls—anywhere two or more people are gathered. He jokes that when he stops at a fast-food restaurant with his grandchildren, he offers to pay—as long as they agree to go inside so he can mingle with the other customers. “I love seeing people,” Alexander says. “It inspires and energizes me.”
So does solving their problems, whether that means fixing a pothole or directing the flow of millions of dollars in state aid.
“You want government to work for folks. I kind of look at it as a ministry to a certain extent,” says Alexander, who keeps a Bible on his desk in the Senate chamber. “I want to make a difference.”
Alexander, a Blue Ridge Electric member himself, developed a strong working relationship with the Upstate cooperative that serves much of his Senate district. He rarely, if ever, misses one of Blue Ridge Electric’s annual meetings, and the cooperative often finds a reason to put him onstage—either to give a speech, say the prayer or lead the Pledge of Allegiance.
A member of Blue Ridge Electric Cooperative, Sen. Thomas Alexander rarely misses the co-op’s annual meeting.
Photo by Blue Ridge Electric
Alexander has had the cooperative’s back at the Statehouse, and he has been instrumental in helping Blue Ridge Electric land game-changing economic development projects back home, Blue Ridge Electric CEO Jim Lovinggood says. “He’s in it for the right reasons. He has a servant’s heart.”
Ahead of the curve
Colleagues say Alexander’s greatest impact comes within the granite walls of the Statehouse. That’s where a single piece of legislation can affect millions of lives, and where Alexander’s skill at diplomacy and consensus building come into play.
Close observers say Alexander welcomes opportunities to take on daunting problems facing the state, noting his contributions to fixing the state’s underfunded pension and rebuilding its unemployment system from the ground up after the Great Recession.
Alexander relishes what many of his colleagues consider an unenviable task: leading the Senate subcommittee that writes the state’s healthcare budget every year. The job requires him to grapple with the Medicaid system and the management of behemoth state agencies that oversee public health, environmental regulation and child welfare.
Senate Democrats, who helped ensure Alexander’s unanimous election as Senate president in 2021, appreciate that he listens to both sides as he works out solutions.
“He genuinely cares about people,” says Senate Minority Leader Brad Hutto, an Orangeburg Democrat. “If it involves the welfare of people, you can count on him to be concerned, compassionate and effective.”
Many expect Alexander’s crowning achievement will be his work on broadband expansion.
Even before the COVID-19 pandemic laid bare the need for high-speed internet access in vast swaths of the state, Alexander was working with his local cooperative, Blue Ridge Electric, to string fiber-optic cable out to rural residents who still had dial-up or no connection to the web at all.
He convened a group of state agency leaders and internet service providers and instructed them to find ways to cut through red tape to quickly begin the buildout of rural broadband.
He successfully pushed for legislation that allowed the state’s electric cooperatives, including Blue Ridge Electric, to string fiber onto their existing electric poles. The new law eliminated the time and expense it normally takes to acquire those easements, letting cooperatives move faster.
“No one helped us out more than him,” says Zach Hinton, Blue Ridge Electric’s vice president of economic development and support services.
When federal COVID-19 relief dollars began pouring into the state by the hundreds of millions, Alexander helped direct huge chunks of it to cooperatives and other service providers that were already working on broadband expansion.
Before the pandemic, some 400,000 S.C. homes lacked access to high-speed internet. With Alexander’s help, that number has been more than cut in half.
“He was ahead of the curve,” says Nanette Edwards, the former head of the Office of Regulatory Staff, which oversees South Carolina’s broadband buildout. “When I think of Sen. Alexander, I think of broadband.”
Alexander, for his part, appears allergic to such praise. He makes it clear he is just doing his part, just like the other 45 members of the Senate.
“The Lord has blessed me, and the citizens have been extremely good to me,” he says.
Alexander says he hopes to continue serving as long as his constituents want him in office. He sees an array of challenges on the horizon—improving mental health care, workforce development and ensuring the reliability of the power grid—and he wants to help solve them.
“When you put South Carolina first,” he says, “you find a way to get to a consensus.”