[1][2] He is a member of the South Carolina Senate, representing the 14th District from since the 1980s, initially as a Democrat, and from October 1989, as a Republican.

[1] Peeler currently serves on the Senate Ethics, Interstate Cooperation, Medical Affairs and Transportation Committees.

[11] In 2015, after the shooting at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, which killed fellow State Senator Clementa C. Pinckney, Peeler voted against removing the Confederate flag.

[12][13] Fifteen years earlier, Peeler was one of only seven senators who voted against the flag's removal from the top of the South Carolina Capitol Dome and both chambers of the South Carolina Legislature to its present position on the capitol grounds, arguing that the flag's removal would only worsen race relations.

[1][2] Peeler married Ila LaDonna Caudill on August 8, 1969, and they have three children: Brantlee Rene, Harvey Smith III, and Boone Solomon.