Dr. Edward Simmer, interim director of the Department of Public Health, answers questions from senators during his confirmation hearing on Thursday, April 3, 2025. (Screenshot of SCETV legislative livestream)
COLUMBIA — The state’s public health director, who legislators tried this year to fire, left his role when the regular legislative session ended for the year, the governor’s office confirmed Friday.
Gov. Henry McMaster has long supported Edward Simmer, even as senators refused last year to confirm him as director of the newly created Department of Public Health because of concerns about Simmer’s support for COVID-19 vaccines.
The governor’s office didn’t point to a specific law Friday that led to Simmer’s removal. But the reason seems to be part of a massive 1993 law that gave the governor the power to hire certain agency heads, with the Senate’s agreement.
Any of the governor’s nominees who the Senate doesn’t confirm by the end of the following legislative session must leave their positions, according to the law. For Simmer, who Gov. Henry McMaster officially nominated in November 2024, that deadline was 5 p.m. Thursday.
At that point, without the Senate’s confirmation, Simmer “could not continue serving,” Michelle LeClair, spokeswoman for the governor, said in an emailed statement. The Department of Public Health declined to comment, pointing all questions to the governor’s office.
Simmer, a military psychiatrist, took over what was then the Department of Health and Environmental Control in February 2021, when COVID-19 vaccinations were in the beginning stages. The law that split the agency in two automatically made Simmer interim director of public health in 2024.
Simmer sailed through his first confirmation in 2021, but the change in law meant he needed senators’ support again. Senators on the 17-member committee that oversaw Simmer’s confirmation last year repeated misinformation about vaccines and said the health director lost their trust before voting 5-12 not to hire him.
Legislators attempted to fire Simmer again this year through a bill changing the way senators confirm the governor’s nominees. After ping-ponging between the House and Senate during the final day of the regular session, the bill failed to make it across the finish line.
Senate Majority Leader Shane Massey, an Edgefield Republican who proposed the part of the failed bill that would oust Simmer, said at the time that Simmer would stay in the job until the governor picked someone else unless the legislature acted.
Who could take over the department has been a concern among senators. The department went eight months without a permanent director before McMaster found Simmer. Simmer’s permanent replacement will likely be up to the winner of the November election to replace McMaster, whose term ends this year.
In the meantime, McMaster chose Brannon Traxler, the agency’s chief medical officer, as interim director. This is Traxler’s second stint in the role, after she served in it from September 2020 until February 2021.
Traxler, who lives in Greenville, has degrees from Clemson University, the University of South Carolina and George Washington University. She began working in public health in 2018 as a physician for the state health department and has since served in several different positions, including director of public health and deputy director of health promotion and services, which involves community outreach.
“Dr. Traxler has spent her career improving the well-being of the people of South Carolina and has earned the trust and respect of those she has worked alongside,” McMaster said in a statement. “Her experience in medicine, surgery, and public health leadership gives her a strong understanding of the challenges facing our state and the expertise needed to lead the Department of Public Health.”
Courtesy of South Carolina Daily Gazette
