[7] Prior to beginning his tenure in the South Carolina Senate, Hutto served as the Chairman of the Orangeburg County Democratic Party from 1988 to 1994.
[8] Jaime Harrison, then a high school student in Orangeburg, credits working with Hutto at this time as part of the reason he got so involved in politics.
He announced his candidacy on March 28, 2014, saying that a "bruising primary" shaping up between Graham and Republican challengers "would give me an opening" in the race despite South Carolina's strong conservative lean.
[12] Hutto also criticized Graham for his frequent television appearances and said he would campaign to represent South Carolina's rural interests and communities.
[15] On May 28, 2014, the South Carolina Democratic Party's executive committee voted unanimously to endorse Hutto in the primary election over candidate Jay Stamper.
[29] [30] Hutto has represented the 40th Senate District since 1996, covering all or portions of the counties of Allendale, Bamberg, Barnwell, Colleton, Hampton, and Orangeburg.
Hutto serves on the following Senate Committees: Judiciary; Medical Affairs; Legislative Oversight; Banking and Insurance; Interstate Cooperation; Fish, Game and Forestry; Education; and Ethics.
[36] Nevertheless, in a pragmatic twist, Hutto was a supporter of bringing back the electric chair to make the job of correction officers "more efficient.
"[37] Alongside Heather Bauer in the state House of Representatives, in 2023, Hutto introduced legislation to outlaw the death penalty for abortion.
For example, in 2005, he opposed Mark Sanford's efforts to toughen seat belts as he saw it as a surface-level revision, designed simply to punish and fine.
They chose Hutto, in part, for his support of Emma's Law, a piece of legislation that would require drivers that get a DUI to have a breathalyzer ignition interlock device installed into their car.
[54][55] In 1999, Hutto supported a MADD-sponsored amendment to lower BAC threshold at which a jury may infer a driver is intoxicated down from 0.10 to 0.08, in-line with federal legislation proposed at the time.
[56] However, in 2000, he initially opposed efforts to adjust the law to automatically convict someone who measures 0.10 BAC as DUI without a right to a jury trial.
[57][43] He later would support the legislation, after getting the Senate to agree to his amendment that would guarantee the right to a trial by jury and the ability to question the breathalyzers results in court regardless of the BAC measured.
[66] From the early days of his time in Senate, Hutto was in support of efforts to remove the Confederate Flag from the South Carolina Statehouse grounds.
[72] Since 2014, Hutto has been an outspoken advocate for LGBT rights, beginning with vocal support for the legalization of same-sex marriage in South Carolina and the United States more broadly.
[76] In efforts to pass a hate crime bill within South Carolina in the wake of the Charleston church shooting, Hutto pressed the Senate to include sexual orientation and gender identity in the state's legislative definition of protected characteristics.
Often arguing from the perspective of pragmatism and preventing obvious federal lawsuits, he opposed allowing teachers and school boards placing the Ten Commandments in classrooms in 2002.
[95] On May 4, 2018, Hutto effectively killed legislation in the Senate which would have banned 97% of abortions in the state of South Carolina by forcing Republicans' into a much stricter bill.
[106] Beginning in 2004, when the Catawbas were looking to operate a video gambling site on their reservation, Hutto argued in their favor, citing the potential for jobs and economic development.
[107] As then-Attorney General Henry McMaster ramped up his legal challenge to the Catawbas plan, Hutto urged compromise and settlement outside of an expensive court battle.
[108][109][110][111][112] As late as 2013, Hutto was still vocally supporting the idea of a poker casino in Santee, though by then, the Catawbas were more reluctant to look beyond their York County reservation lands.
[113] Initially, the courts ruled in the favor of maintaining the 1993 agreement South Carolina had with the Catawbas, which would allow for them to host video poker casinos, regardless of state-law.
After the Gülen movement attempted a failed coup in 2016, the Center for Public Integrity highlighted Hutto as one of eight South Carolina legislators (seven Democrats, one Republican) that took free trips to Turkey in 2012.
[123] A loophole in the South Carolina magistrate system allows judges to remain indefinitely in a holdover status, during which the nominating senator has complete authority over their employment.
In 2008, The State used SC's Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) to obtain copies of 10 DUI tickets in which Brad Hutto was both defense lawyer and nominating senator over a magistrate in holdover status.
[128] Hutto has been criticized by Democrats and Republicans alike for refusing to recuse himself when issues about the USC board come before the Senate, despite the fact that his law partner, Charles Williams, is a trustee.
In January 2018, it was revealed that Hutto attended lavish "appreciation dinners" hosted by SCANA and other utility companies in the years surrounding the Nukegate scandal.
[131] On March 27, 2018, Governor McMaster released thousands of pages of email communications of state-run utility lobbyists, some of which indicated they saw Hutto as a target for manipulation during legislative debates about whether to sell Santee Cooper.
[136] Turner's well-connected father and his reduced sentences lead some to allege a sweetheart deal had taken place,[137] and family members of alleged-victims called it another example of the good old boys network of South Carolina protecting their own.