The Hurricane That Drove André Bauer From The U.S. Senate Race

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by CALLIE LYONS

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On July 2, 2025, former South Carolina lieutenant governor André Bauer launched what could have been the most formidable Republican primary challenge incumbent U.S. senator Lindsey Graham has faced in decades. Thirty-seven days later, however, Bauer abruptly ended his candidacy.

There was no public scandal, no disappointing poll results, nor a lack of grassroots support. By most measures, Bauer’s campaign was still building momentum. But insiders say his bid was ultimately sunk by a single Facebook post — one made more than six years earlier, in January 2019.

In another setting, the post might have been a harmless nod to party history. Here, though, it was political dynamite: a lit fuse which revived an ugly, high-stakes feud tied to Bauer’s wife, her ex-husband and the state’s top prosecutor. When it resurfaced this summer, the blow landed like a precision strike — and the man believed to have launched it had every reason to make it hurt.

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RELATED | ANDRÉ BAUER EXITS U.S. SENATE RACE

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THE FIRST SQUALL BANDS

At first glance, the post seemed innocuous: a vintage 1978 photo celebrating Republican trailblazers. But in South Carolina’s political climate, context is everything. And this post carried the whiff of an old storm front — one that had been brewing for years in Horry County.

The first gust hit in September 2016 when Harold “H.G.” Worley Jr. — the ex-husband of Bauer’s wife, Meredith Bauer — was arrested on multiple counts of criminal sexual conduct with minors. The charges were explosive, amplified by the family’s deep political roots.

Worley Jr.’s father, Harold Worley Sr., had served on Horry County Council for more than three decades — a position which afforded him influence over the police department’s budget and salaries, including those of the officers who arrested his son. Worley Jr. himself had once sat on the North Myrtle Beach Planning Commission.

That closeness to local law enforcement was enough for S.C. fifteenth circuit solicitor Jimmy Richardson to hand the case over to the office of S.C. attorney general Alan Wilson.

“The attorney general’s office ultimately took over the criminal case, and (Wilson) made the decision to prosecute this case at trial,” a 2022 court order noted.

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By February 2018, the Worleys’ divorce was final, though custody disputes remained unresolved. Six months later, Meredith Carter Worley married Bauer.

Three months before the criminal trial against Worley Jr. — in which Meredith Bauer was the key accuser — newlywed André Bauer posted that vintage GOP photo. The outcome of the trial would determine both Worley Jr.’s freedom and his parental rights. The custody dispute was bitter, with both parties under court orders barring them from making public statements about each other on social media.

The first “like” on the post came from none other than Wilson, the man whose office was prosecuting his wife’s ex-husband.

In another setting, it might have been viewed as harmless. In this one, though, it was perceived as a signal. Whether intended or not, it read as a public show of solidarity between the state’s top prosecutor and the new husband of his office’s star witness. And in Horry County, where political grudges have long memories, that signal would not be forgotten.

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Intended or not, the post and its high-profile “like” sent a pointed message – and Worley Jr. received it.

“Tell me that doesn’t look like a signal between old friends: We’ve got this. We’re going to take him down,” he wrote earlier this month.

“Was it meant to strike fear in me?” Worley Jr. added. “You can decide, but I will never forget how it made me feel. I was disgusted by it, because, while the normal and everyday citizen likely didn’t know of the rampant corruption… I knew the whole time my case was as corrupt as corrupt can be.”

Three months later, in April 2019, Worley Jr. was acquitted on all charges. The acquittal, however, did not restore his parental rights; Meredith was awarded sole custody of the children.

By the end of 2019, Worley Jr. filed a defamation lawsuit against Meredith Bauer, accusing her of fabricating the criminal accusations against him to alienate him from his children. The case dragged on until July 20, 2022, when a judge dismissed it on summary judgment, calling it “frivolous.”

Though the case was closed, the bitterness lingered — a new line of storm clouds already forming.

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RELATED | ANDRÉ BAUER TIES THE KNOT

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HISTORY REPEATS?

The 2019 Facebook exchange between the political heavy hitters was far too public to go unnoticed. At the time, accusations were flying, criminal charges were pending and a bitter custody battle remained unresolved. In Horry County — where politics and personal grudges often share the same dinner table — this was no nostalgic nod to party history.

The same sort of influence was exposed in 2023 following the roadside shooting of North Carolina insurance adjuster Scott Spivey. Following the shooting – which remains the focus of a high-profile civil lawsuit – it was revealed one of the confessed shooters called in a favor from Horry County Police Department (HCPD) chief deputy Brandon Strickland.

The HCPD investigation resulted in no charges for the shooters – Charles Weldon Boyd and Kenneth Bradley Williams – who claimed they were acting in self-defense. For the HCPD, though, it has been an ongoing scandal. When confronted earlier this year with an internal affairs investigation regarding the case, Strickland resigned. Meanwhile, another officer was terminated for his role in the botched inquiry. Amid growing evidence that local authorities assisted with a favorable outcome at Boyd’s request, the S.C. State Law Enforcement Division (SLED) was asked to investigate HCPD’s handling of the matter.

The situation left HCPD with a black eye — and drew unwanted public attention to the role of influence in Horry County politics and governance. It introduced the public conversation and provided fertile ground for others to be exposed.

And in a county where political storms never fully pass, that moment stayed offshore — a dark, slow-turning system, biding its time until the winds shifted just right.

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THE STORM SURGE

The 2016 arrest of Worley Jr. was not the final act of politically motivated aggression committed against family members by HCPD, according to a 2025 federal civil rights lawsuit filed by Thomas Wade Long — Harold Worley Sr.’s son-in-law.

Long’s complaint, now in U.S. District Court, alleged his 2022 arrest was unlawful, politically motivated, and part of a broader campaign of intimidation against him for publicly supporting Worley Sr.’s re-election to Horry County Council.

According to the filing, Long erected a campaign sign for Worley on his commercial property in Little River in May 2022. Within days, HCPD sergeant William Dozier — allegedly acting on orders from then-deputy chief Strickland, chief Joseph Hill, and North Precinct commander Lisa Vault — tracked down the man who had installed the sign and escorted him back under blue lights to remove it. The lawsuit says the sign’s destruction occurred without notice, due process, or legal authority, and was based solely on its political message because HCPD leadership supported Worley’s opponent.

The complaint also detailed a June 2022 incident in which Long called 911, as instructed by another officer, during a property dispute tied to a separate business lawsuit. When officers arrived, Sgt. William Deitzel allegedly handcuffed him without explanation, placed him in the back of a sweltering patrol car, and transported him toward the county detention center — only to be ordered mid-transport to “unarrest” him.

Long claims he was then released at the scene and served with a 911 misuse citation that was never filed with the court. He accuses HCPD of using the arrest, the phantom charge, and repeated threats of arrest during ongoing civil litigation to intimidate him, undermine his business, and retaliate against his political expression.

The lawsuit alleged violations of Long’s First, Fourth, Eighth, and Fourteenth Amendment rights, selective enforcement, and willful disregard of three standing circuit court orders that allowed him to operate his business. Vault is quoted in the filing as dismissing those orders as “not worth the paper it’s printed on.”

By tying these actions to his support for Worley, Long’s case has revived questions about whether political rivalries in Horry County have influenced law enforcement decisions — a thread running through years of controversy, from Worley Jr.’s prosecution to the more recent Scott Spivey case.

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THE EYE OF THE STORM

Bauer’s Senate campaign against Lindsey Graham was already an uphill climb — requiring discipline and a spotless narrative. Even a dated scandal might prove to be too much. And, such a controversy was waiting in the wings in the form of a January 2019 Facebook post that called to memory Meredith’s marriage to Bauer during a contentious custody battle, the criminal trial against Worley Jr. that resulted in his acquittal and the perception of political favoritism in a year that would tolerate no more.

“Political power is being used like a weapon in this state,” Worley wrote this month. “It poisons justice and destroys trust. If it can happen to me, it can happen to you.”

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After deep prayer and reflection, I have decided to suspend my campaign for the United States Senate.

This decision does not come lightly. I entered this race with a servant’s heart—believing that our nation needs leaders who are grounded in truth, integrity, and faith. But I…

— André Bauer (@AndreBauerSC) August 8, 2025

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Thirty-seven days after launching his bid, Bauer stepped down — not because he couldn’t win, but because the storm that was threatening was sure to be an ugly one.

“Boy, I have the goods on you!!!” Worley Jr. wrote in a separate post earlier this month. “My investigators got you good! Is that why you dropped out?!?”

If political insiders are correct and this Facebook post is to blame for ending Bauer’s Senate campaign, it is also a reminder that the corruption of the influence that is and has been alive and well in Horry County.

In 2025, while the public is learning of corrupt Spivey investigation and mourning the tragically preventable death of Mica Francis Miller whose pleas for help were ignored by Horry County authorities, voters can hardly be expected to look the other way when a candidate is outed for flaunting political influence.

Bauer did not publicly address Worley Jr.’s post in his statement withdrawing from the race, but he has told multiple associates his wife’s ex-husband was responsible for leaking political dirt on him to his political opponents. Bauer’s messages to allies also made plain his decision to withdraw was not tied to his own fate – or his wife’s – but the children he and Meredith Bauer have raised together for the past seven years.

Paraphrasing messages received from Bauer, two supporters said he simply refused to put the children through another public rehashing of the drama between his wife and Worley Jr.

To others, though, the repost of Bauer’s Facebook photo is a reminder that nothing has changed in Horry County. The same factions remain. The same grudges simmer. And the same hurricane that may have driven Bauer’s race off course has not gone away. It continues to spin – ready to head back toward land at any moment.

“They ALL tried to destroy me,” Worley wrote following Bauer’s decision to suspend his candidacy. “They hurt my dad and my sisters. They tried to bury my good name. They really hurt my kids! But, they forgot one thing… I DON’T BREAK. I STRIKE BACK.”

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR…

Callie Lyons is a relentless investigative journalist, researcher, and author known for exposing hard truths with heart and precision. As a journalist for FITSNews, she dives into high-profile and murky cases—like that of Mica Francis Miller— with fearless resolve and a sharp eye for detail, whether it’s tracking white-collar crime, uncovering religious abuse, or examining the often-bizarre behavior of those who believe they’re above the law.

Callie made waves with her groundbreaking 2007 book Stain-Resistant, Nonstick, Waterproof and Lethal, the first to reveal the dangers of forever chemicals, a story that helped inspire the film Dark Waters and influenced global scientific dialogue. Her work has appeared in numerous documentaries, including Toxic Soup, National Geographic’s Parched: Toxic Waters, and more recently Citizen Sleuth, which examines the complexities of true crime podcasting.

Whether she’s navigating environmental disasters or the darker corners of society, Lyons operates with one guiding belief: “Truth never damages a cause that is just.”

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