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Ex-Con Turned Reality TV Star Is Running for Senate. It’s Our Must-Read Story of the Day

Jul 8, 2014  •  Post A Comment

Credit our headline on this one to Mother Jones magazine.

The magazine explains: "Thomas Ravenel, a former [South Carolina] state treasurer and once-rising figure in the state Republican Party, announced last Friday that he would wage an independent campaign for the Senate seat now held by [Republican Lindsey] Graham."

Mother Jones adds: "Ravenel's not exactly the model candidate. In 2007, shortly after becoming state treasurer, he was arrested for cocaine possession and forced to resign. He served six months in jail and another four months split between a halfway house and home arrest at his mother's retirement home. What Ravenel's been doing since he got out could pose an even greater problem: Earlier this year, he was the central figure in the debut season of Bravo's 'Southern Charm,' a reality show tracking drama amongst the Charleston elite. Ravenel — who also goes by T-Rav — was the show's drunken protagonist, bedding women half his age and fretting about the need to find a political wife to restart his career."

The Mother Jones piece, by Patrick Caldwell, also reports: "[P]erhaps the most damaging thing that happened on the show was Ravenel's relationship with Kathryn Dennis, a then-21-year-old descendant of John C. Calhoun. After dealing with a false-alarm pregnancy scare in the wake of their one-night stand early in the season, the two became an on-again, off-again couple, ultimately parting ways by the end of the season. But an epilogue, tagged nine months later, shows Ravenel and Dennis with their newborn daughter, Kensington Calhoun Ravenel, born in March. Ravenel and Dennis have talked about getting married, so stay tuned for developments on that front during this fall's campaign (or, at least, season two of 'Southern Charm')."

To learn more about Ravenel, please click on the link in our first sentence, which will bring you to the original Mother Jones story.

Thomas Ravenel on Bravo's Southern Charm.jpgThomas Ravenel on Bravo's "Southern Charm"

 

 

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