Official: South Carolina Republican US Rep. Henry Brown will not seek election to 6th term

Official: SC GOP Rep. Brown won’t seek 6th term

CHARLESTON, S.C. — Republican U.S. Rep. Henry Brown will not seek a sixth term in Congress this fall, an official with his campaign said Monday.

Brown, a farm boy who became one of the South Carolina’s most powerful state lawmakers before embarking on a second political chapter in Congress, is 74.

A campaign official with knowledge of Brown’s plans said he will announce his retirement Monday. The official asked not to be identified to avoid pre-empting the official announcement.

There has been speculation in recent months that Brown might retire after five terms in his reliably Republican coastal district, which stretches from near Charleston to the North Carolina state line.

Brown was raised on a farm in Cordesville, S.C., and later became an executive of the Piggly Wiggly grocery store chain, a job he left at 49 to become a full-time lawmaker.

He won the 1st District seat in 2000 when now-Gov. Mark Sanford left to honor a self-imposed three-term limit.

In Congress, Brown worked on issues including port security and finding money to build Interstate 73, a new link between Myrtle Beach and the Midwest.

Before that, he served 14 years in the South Carolina House of Representatives, where from 1995 through 1999 he was chairman of the powerful Ways and Means Committee.