In 2008, the seat for S.C. House District #41 came open when 8-year incumbent Creighton Coleman ran for the S.C. State Senate. This district is comprised of voters in all of Fairfield County and a few precincts in Chester County, areas that have been particularly hit hard by unemployment in South Carolina.
Boyd Brown, whose family has deep roots in the district, offered himself for this seat and his grandfather once served as State Representative in this very district. He was also one of the youngest candidates in South Carolina history to run for the Legislature.
After he defeated a Fairfield County school board member in the Democratic Primary, Brown faced off against Republican Sean Schaeffner in the general election. Schaeffner was not shy about throwing punches in Brown's direction, distributing advertisements that attacked the character of Brown and his family.
To counter this line of attacks, Brown retained CR+S to develop direct mail to counter the Republican's attacks and offer positive messaging that focused on Brown's plan to serve as a representative for everyone. The results were extremely successful when the votes were counted on Election Night. After all votes came in, Brown crushed Schaeffner by an 80-to-20 margin to become the new State Representative for District 41.