In 1983, he became at twenty-eight the youngest member ever elected to the Greenville City Council, in which he represented District 1 during the early tenure of Mayor Bill Workman. In 1986, Haskins was elected as a conservative Republican to the state legislature from the district that contained Bob Jones University and held that seat until his death. In 1990, he lost a bid for the United States House of Representatives from South Carolina's 4th congressional district to the Democrat Liz J. Patterson, who had previously defeated the Republicans Bill Workman in 1986 and Knox H. White in 1988, the current mayor of Greenville.