Thomas F. Hartnett
| Thomas F. Hartnett | |
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| Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from South Carolina's 1st district |
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In office January 3, 1981 – January 3, 1987 |
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| Preceded by | Mendel J. Davis |
| Succeeded by | Arthur Ravenel, Jr. |
| Member of the South Carolina Senate from the 16th District | |
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In office January 9, 1973 – January 3, 1981 |
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| Member of the South Carolina House of Representatives from Charleston County | |
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In office January 12, 1965 – January 9, 1973 |
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| Personal details | |
| Born |
August 7, 1941 Charleston, South Carolina |
| Political party | Republican |
Thomas Forbes "Tommy" Hartnett (born August 7, 1941) was a U.S. Representative from South Carolina.
Hartnett was born in Charleston. He graduated from Bishop England High School in Charleston in 1960. He attended the College of Charleston from 1960 to 1961. He was in the United States Air Force Reserve from 1963 to 1969.
In 1964, Hartnett was elected to the South Carolina House of Representatives from a Charleston-area district. He served four terms in that body. Originally a Democrat, he became a Republican in 1972, and attended that year's state Republican convention (and every convention after that until 1980). He was elected to the South Carolina Senate in 1972 and served two terms.
In 1980, Hartnett won the Republican nomination for the Charleston-based 1st District after five-term incumbent Mendel Jackson Davis retired due to back problems. He narrowly defeated his Democratic opponent, Associate Deputy Commerce Secretary Charles D. Ravenel, becoming the first Republican to win an undisputed election in the district since Reconstruction. Hartnett likely owed his win to Ronald Reagan winning Charleston County with 55 percent of the vote. The district had also been trending Republican for some time at the national level; it has only supported the official Democratic candidate for president once since 1956, when Jimmy Carter carried it in 1976. However, conservative Democrats continued to hold most of the district's seats in the state legislature, as well as most local offices—and would continue to do so well into the 1990s.
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