Catherine Templeton, Republican Candidate for Governor of South Carolina, will address the Aiken Republican Club luncheon on Tuesday October 24, 2017. Recruited by business leaders to join then Governor Nikki Haley, Catherine agreed to serve as Secretary of Labor, one of Haley’s first cabinet appointments, and then as the Director of the SC Department of Health and Environmental Control. Referred to as a consensus builder, Catherine also enjoys a reputation as a plain spoken reformer. She was one of five people placed on Governor Haley’s short list to become a United States Senator from South Carolina upon the resignation of Senator Jim DeMint. After Catherine left government, she was summoned to Trump Tower during Cabinet appointments to meet with President Trump, Vice-President Pence, Steve Bannon, and Reince Priebus. She was offered a job in the US Labor Department, but declined so she could focus on South Carolina.
Catherine graduated from Wofford College with a degree in Political Economics and Philosophy. Her first job was working in the inspection department of a textile mill in Jonesville, SC. After she worked her way up to Training Manager and then senior management over multiple factories, she wanted to further her education and went to law school at the University of South Carolina. She received the University of South Carolina School of Law’s highest award, the Compleat Lawyer, and was recognized by her peers as one of the nation’s Best Lawyers. In her vetting by the SC Bar, her fellow lawyers noted her ability to listen and build consensus. Since then, Catherine has spent most of her life in the private sector advising Fortune 500 companies nationally and working in manufacturing locally.
She is a mother of 3 and has been involved with her church and her community her entire life. She was the Sunday School Coordinator for her church, the Parents’ Association President for the preschool, handled the charitable foundation for the Women’s Council at the Gibbes Museum of Art, and even sold popcorn in her role on the Boy Scout Board.
She spent a lot of time traveling the country with US Supreme Court Justice (Ret.) Sandra Day O’Conner as the National Coordinator of the Justice’s iCivics program that educates children on the importance of civic involvement and the role of the three branches of government. Before they were through, all 50 states had the free resource and teachers all over SC were using the curriculum.
Catherine has roots in York County, grew up in Lexington, spent her summers on the South Strand, worked and went to college in Spartanburg and Greenville, and raises her children with her husband Morgan in his hometown of Charleston.
