Comedian Stephen Colbert's sister to run for Congress

CHARLESTON, South Carolina (Reuters) - Democrat Elizabeth Colbert-Busch, sister of Comedy Central television star Stephen Colbert, will run for South Carolina's vacant Congressional seat, a state party official said on Friday.

The state will hold a special election on May 7 to fill the seat left vacant by Tim Scott, a first-term Republican who was appointed to the U.S. Senate this month. Scott replaced Republican Senator Jim DeMint, who resigned in December to head the conservative think-tank, The Heritage Foundation.

Candidate filing opened on Friday and closes January 28.

Colbert-Busch has not yet filed, said Amanda Loveday, executive director of the state Democratic Party, but her campaign has informed the state party that she will file on Tuesday.

Colbert-Busch is director of business development for the Clemson University Restoration Institute, which is building a wind turbine drivetrain testing facility in North Charleston, South Carolina.

She was previously director of regional sales and marketing for the South Atlantic and Mexico for Orient Overseas Container Line, one of the world's largest integrated international container transportation, logistics and terminal companies and a subsidiary of Orient Overseas International Limited.

According to Charleston Women in International Trade, of which she is a founding member, Colbert-Busch is the eighth child in the family of 11 children. The family includes her brother Stephen, the Charleston native who "ran" as an unofficial candidate in South Carolina's open Republican presidential primary last January by urging voters to cast their ballots for Herman Cain, who had dropped out of the race.

Colbert also formed a political action committee, Americans for a Better Tomorrow, Tomorrow, that spent $90,000 on advertising in the state. State Democrats were not amused, and urged Democrats not to vote in the Republican primary.

Colbert-Busch is an expert in government maritime relations and the ocean transportation chain, according to the women's business group.

Republicans interested in the seat include a number of state legislators as well as former Governor Mark Sanford who said this week that he will run for the seat. Republican Teddy Turner, the son of cable television mogul Ted Turner, has also said he will run for the seat.

(Editing by Jane Sutton and David Gregorio)