I believe I can take credit for that. He appeared in a few of my "A nation perplexed" strips. Oddly enough, I scarcely knew a thing about Strom Thurmond before writing those strips. I needed six characters who could be Congresspeople, and I thought it would be great if he was one. Then I thought he should be from South Carolina, since they had that whole business with flying the Confederate flag over their capitol. So I did a little research on Congresspeople from South Carolina, and ST turned out to be a perfect fit.
---
The what mentioned above is total fiction. Please don't take it seriously!