ARCHIVE – This Tuesday, May 27, 2014, archival photo, Sally Atwater, a Republican candidate for state superintendent of education, answers a question during a televised debate at the South Carolina ETV in Columbia, SC Atwater, wife of the famous GOP strategist and former Republican National Committee chairman Lee Atwater died on Monday, March 8, 2021, according to her family and several Republican Party officials in South Carolina. She was 69 years old. (Gerry Melendez / O Estado via AP, Archive)
ARCHIVE – This Tuesday, May 27, 2014, archival photo, Sally Atwater, a Republican candidate for state superintendent of education, answers a question during a televised debate at the South Carolina ETV in Columbia, SC Atwater, wife of the famous GOP strategist and former Republican National Committee chairman Lee Atwater died on Monday, March 8, 2021, according to her family and several Republican Party officials in South Carolina. She was 69 years old. (Gerry Melendez / O Estado via AP, Archive)
COLOMBIA, SC (AP) – Sally Atwater, wife of the late Republican strategist and former chairman of the Republican National Committee Lee Atwater, died on Tuesday, according to her family and party officials across South Carolina. 69 years.
Atwater died “surrounded by his daughters, sons-in-law and shihtzus”, his daughter, Ashley Vazana, posted on Facebook.
Authorities said Atwater was recently under palliative care. In 2019, The Associated Press included Atwater in a story about cancer patients seeking to use experimental drugs. At the time, Atwater was battling lung cancer that had spread to his brain and spine.
Described by Republican strategist Luke Byars as a “force” in state politics, Sally Atwater was associated for some primarily with her late husband. Lee Atwater served as an adviser to Presidents Ronald Reagan and George HW Bush and as chairman of the Republican National Committee. The focus of the documentary “Boogie Man”, Lee Atwater became known for his aggressive political tactics in the style of “dirty tricks”.
Working in the United States Department of Education in the 1980s, Sally Atwater remained in Washington after her husband’s death in 1991, working for several federal agencies. She later returned to South Carolina, where she studied and became active in Republican circles.
Entering elected politics, Atwater took second place in an eight-party Republican primary for South Carolina’s top public education post in 2014, forcing competitor Molly Spearman – who outperformed her by less than half a percent – to one second shift.
In that campaign, Atwater was endorsed by former President Bush and his wife, Barbara, who said their “real-life experience” “would serve everyone interested in the South Carolina education system. … Barbara and me we support and recommend it to everyone ”.
Spearman won the second round by double digits, was victorious in the general election and was elected for a second term in 2018.
On Tuesday, Spearman told the AP that he saw Atwater as “a caring and dedicated mother, educator and friend” who “loved South Carolina and has always given herself over to making her community, state and nation a better place”.
In 2016, Atwater served as delegate general to the Republican National Convention of South Carolina, initially campaigning for former Florida governor Jeb Bush before the state’s first presidential primaries in the South before supporting Donald Trump’s candidacy.
On Tuesday, Byars recalled Atwater as “an incredible woman who taught us to never give up and how to always fight for what we believe in”.
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Meg Kinnard can be contacted at http://twitter.com/MegKinnardAP.