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by WILL FOLKS
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We’ve never made it a priority to investigate or expose the private lives of public officials – so long as they aren’t wasting tax dollars, abusing their office or engaging in overtly hypocritical behavior.
Absent any of those qualifiers, we generally believe what people do behind closed doors is their own business.
But sometimes, public officials or their significant others put their own dirty laundry into the public sphere – including intimate details uncovered about their spouses. And sometimes, those doing the exposing are themselves elected officials.
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That happened on Saturday morning (August 2, 2025) when Charleston County school board member Michele Leber publicly called out her husband, state senator Matt Leber, for alleged infidelity with a political consultant.
In a since-deleted Facebook post that ricocheted around the Palmetto political world, Michele Leber posted several text exchanges which purportedly took place between senator Leber and political strategist Rebecca Madsen, whom she referred to as “his whore.”
Leber has paid Madsen approximately $4,750 from his campaign account since December of 2023 for various itemized services including “political consulting” and “campaign labor.”
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Michele Leber also listed her marital status on social media as “separated” in the aftermath of disclosing the alleged affair.
While Michele Leber deleted the original post naming her husband, several subsequent posts referenced its bombshell allegation against Madsen.
“There are more married men,” she publicly alleged, referring to Madsen. “She has had multiple affairs and likely blackmail on others. Divorces coming!”
The Lebers are – or were – one of the up-and-coming political power couples in the Palmetto State. Matt Leber narrowly edged incumbent senator Sandy Senn in the 2024 GOP primary – and took office last fall after a decisive general election victory. He has garnered plaudits for his efforts to force all elected officials in the Palmetto State to swear to their oaths of office – but has drawn criticism for his subservience to South Carolina’s über-liberal, über-wealthy trial lawyer lobby.
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Matt Leber has also drawn criticism for sponsoring an infamous legislative pay raise – which has since been shot down (temporarily) by the S.C. supreme court.
Michele Leber won election to the Charleston County school board last November, and has emerged as one of its most vocal pro-parent representatives and aggressive proponents of leveraging artificial intelligence.
While some questioned Michele Leber’s decision to expose her husband, several Republican women who spoke privately with FITSNews celebrated the callout.
“Good for Michele,” one told us. “She’s setting a new standard.”
Curiously, though, several hours after dropping a thermonuclear detonation on her husband’s political career, Michele Leber said she still supported him as an elected official.
“After five long years of campaigning we have given our marriage away,” she wrote, adding “I still believe and trust in my husband’s ability to constitutional govern, and guide me in the political arena. I am still immensely proud of him. He still has my vote!”
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR…
Will Folks is the founding editor of the news outlet you are currently reading. Prior to founding FITSNews, he served as press secretary to the governor of South Carolina. He lives in the Midlands region of the state with his wife and eight children.
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10 comments
C’mon, it’s not THAT bad… I mean, it’s not like he joined the Freedom Caucus or anything!
He had such promise. Too bad he is an idiot.
Ousting Sandy Senn was a definite plus! Fealty to trial lawyers and introducing the Legislative pay raise are definite minuses. Did he also support that unnecessary cell phone bill? If so, he needs to be replaced.
Both of these people support Donald Trump. Neither one of them are the kind of people that deserve to be elected officials. I went to their house to give them an estimate for some unfinished work because they fired their last contractor. I left my tape measure there. I called her shortly after I left to let her know that I had left it there. She told me “Ya, Good Luck”. I never got my tape measure back. This happened right before Covid hit our country. She wasn’t concerned about Covid AT ALL. Needless to say, I walked away from that crazy lady! She is MAGA. They are BOTH MAGA! I don’t work for racist MAGA politicians!
Meanwhile, over in Texas, embattled Attorney General Ken Paxton’s wife, Angela Paxton, has filed for divorce on biblical grounds. Paxton is gunning for John Cornyn (T-TX) senate seat.
Good grief. Are there any people with common sense, morals and ethics serving the public in elected offices? I guess nobody told these people not to hang their dirty laundry in public. I had hope in my new state senator… better luck next time.
Nope, and neither do floozies. In this case, opposites dont attract!
Media outlets are evil, ruining the lives of millions of Americans with lies & half-truths! We have seen Presidents blatantly lied about and people fall for those lies! Intelligent people understand that there are always three sides to a story: her side, his side and somewhere in the middle lies the truth!
The judgement of the masses compounds the damage done by a woman who is lying about her victimhood! By her posts she does not speak of her prior knowledge of her failed marriage with negotiations having already begun between herself and her soon-to-be ex-husband! Anyone with a functioning brain can see by her frantic, disjointed, angry, accusatory, and at times nonsensical posts that she is more than unhinged!
For those who have faced uncontested divorce in S.C., they realize, putting their lives on hold for 2/3 years after a year of separation, is a prison sentence! All the while divorcing couples in G.A. Have only to wait 30/60 days for an uncontested divorce!
No one should be labeled a cheater when they and their spouse are living separate lives while working through divorce!
Nor should one spouse do to the other irreparable, intentional damage with lies and half-truths for any reason!
And then we add in the ugly folks
Who take pleasure in the pain of others! Responsible journalism is as dead as common sense! FACT! Our Country is a cesspool of lies, coverups, corruption, human trafficking, exploitation of innocent, precious children! And less and less people care that the Country is built on lies!
Do journalists research and dig for truth? Do they even know what integrity means? Naw, why should they actually do any real research when they can go online and grab screenshots of rants posted by an unhinged, vengeful soon-to-be ex-wife!
Blaming a soon-to-be ex for the divorce is a twisted story as old as time! Instead of accepting partial responsibility for the failed marriage, she has taken the opportunity to seize control of the narrative all while her obvious emotional instability, brewing for decades, destroyed her career, her soon-to-be ex-husband’s career! But the most egregious aspect of this atrocity is the blowing up of her children’s lives, creating more pain and suffering than they would have if she would have protected them!
Don’t defend the cheater! (Most say). Yet no one actually knows the truth, do they? But the masses gobble up the lies and gossip like swine at the trough!
The empathetic understand that the wife needs help! The children need her to be stable to help them deal with the chaos and damage she has created when she took her twisted reality to the public!
Which kind of person are you?
Are you a swine revelling in their pain and suffering OR are you praying for the entire family?
Matthew 7:1-6
“Do not judge, or you too will be judged.2 For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.
3 “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? 4 How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? 5 You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.
^^^Leber’s sister.^^ #unhinged
Cheater should resign now. Anything else is BS.