Hugh Kenneth Leatherman Sr. (April 14, 1931 – November 12, 2021) was an American politician who served as a Republican member of the South Carolina Senate from 1981 until his death in 2021.

He negotiated the deal to bring Boeing to South Carolina in 2009 and secured funding for the deepening of the Charleston Harbor in 2011.

[3] Critics of Hugh Leatherman raised concerns about his continued relationship with his concrete business and his position overseeing the state budget and Transportation Department.

[3] In his first year in office, he formed a bipartisan voting bloc with other freshman senators including Harvey S. Peeler Jr.[3] He also became chairman of the legislative Highway Oversight Committee during this term.

[3] Leatherman was in office when an FBI sting ended with 17 statehouse lawmakers being convicted of crimes, generally for public corruption.

[7] He is also seen as having been instrumental in attracting Honda to Timmonsville by convincing the South Carolina Department of Transportation to build an interchange.

He brought about massive expenditure in downtown Florence including a $17 million library, an arts center, and a county museum.

[3] A former mayor of Florence, Frank Willis, said that those who live in the Pee Dee had long complained that they had been abandoned by the State, but the game changed when Leatherman took power.

[3] He also forced the end of a two-year-long filibuster in 2017 from Senator Tom Davis who had been stalling a state tax increase on gasoline.

[13] During the COVID-19 pandemic, Leatherman was one of two senate republicans who voted on a failed bill that would have given public college students $250 scholarships if they received a COVID-19 vaccination.

During the Sanford administration, Leatherman alongside Senator Glenn F. McConnell and House Speaker Bobby Harrell held most of the power in the state.

[16] Sanford attempted to consolidate power within the executive branch but he was effectively rebuffed by the General Assembly who overrode most of his vetoes.

[16] In her last term in office, Governor Nikki Haley claimed that Leatherman was solely responsible for preventing ethics reform in the General Assembly.

As President Pro Tempore, Leatherman would have been next in line to become Lieutenant Governor of South Carolina upon Haley's confirmation and the ascension of Henry McMaster to the governorship.

[22] Among the no votes were Senate Majority Leader Shane Massey who stated that re-electing Leatherman violated "the spirit and intent of the constitution.

[3] On October 22, 2021, it was announced that Leatherman was receiving hospice care at his home in Florence for "advanced and aggressive" intestinal cancer,[24][25] which was inoperable.