Former DNC leader, mainstay of S.C. politics Don Fowler dies

COLUMBIA, S.C.» Don Fowler, a former chair of the Democratic National Committee and mainstay of South Carolina and national politics for decades, has died. He was 85.

Trav Robertson, chairman of South Carolina’s Democratic Party, told The Associated Press that Fowler died Tuesday night, calling him “the Democrats’ Democrat.”

No cause was mentioned, but Fowler’s wife said on Facebook that he had been in the hospital this week. DNC Associate Chairman Jaime Harrison said Fowler had leukemia.

Fowler, a native of Spartanburg, attended Wofford College, where he played basketball and baseball, and earned master’s and doctorate degrees in political science from the University of Kentucky.

He led the state party from 1971 to 1980, overseeing the 1988 Democratic National Convention in Atlanta.