Trump's pick in Republican race for South Carolina governor faces runoff election

CHARLESTON, S.C. (CN) — South Carolina’s lieutenant governor and attorney general will compete in a runoff election after neither candidate secured a majority of the votes in the Republican governor’s race.

Meanwhile, a state representative seen as a rising star in the Democratic Party hopes to defy expectations and flip the top job in the deeply red state after securing his party’s nomination.

Lieutenant Governor Pamela Evette earned just under 30% of the vote in Tuesday’s GOP primary for governor. Attorney General Alan Wilson trailed her with about 26% of the vote.

U.S. Representative Ralph W. Norman earned about 17% of the vote, followed by businessman Rom Reddy at about 14% and U.S. Representative Nancy Mace at 12%.

Evette and Wilson will face off in a June 23 runoff election.

A late endorsement from President Donald Trump boosted Evette’s campaign in the final weeks of the race. The president held a virtual rally Monday to support Evette and U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham, who easily fought off a primary challenge Tuesday from Greenville businessman Mark Lynch.

Governor Henry McMaster also endorsed Evette. The 58-year-old businesswoman touted her support for Trump’s America First agenda on the campaign trail, saying she would push to eliminate the state income tax, improve infrastructure and expand school choice.

Evette told supporters Tuesday night that the president phoned to say they were going to “win this runoff big.”

“He said he is going to help us deliver the American First agenda right here in South Carolina,” Evette said.

Wilson was elected in 2010 to replace McMaster as the state’s attorney general, where he has led prosecutions of sex crimes, human trafficking and financial fraud while defending the state in federal disputes over redistricting, abortion restrictions and book bans.

The most prominent case of Wilson’s career has been the prosecution of Alex Murdaugh, the 57-year-old ex-attorney accused of murdering his wife and son at the family’s Lowcountry estate in 2023.

Wilson’s office secured guilty pleas after a six-week trial that drew international attention to the lurid Southern saga, but the South Carolina Supreme Court recently tossed out the convictions because of jury tampering by a court clerk.

Wilson’s brother, Julian Wilson, is co-owner of the firearm company Palmetto State Armory. His adopted father is U.S. Representative Joe Wilson.

On social media, Wilson’s campaign sought to woo Republican voters casting around for a new candidate the morning after the primaries.

“As governor, I will fight every day to make our state more affordable for families, more profitable for businesses and more accountable to you,” the attorney general said on X. “I would be honored to earn your support.”

Mace endorsed Wilson in the runoff election after her defeat Tuesday.

“I want a law-and-order governor, and that law-and-order governor is going to be Alan Wilson,” she told supporters. “And I not only think he’s going to win tonight, I think he’s going to mop the floor with Pamela Evette, and I very much look forward to that.”

Dave Woodard, a veteran GOP strategist, said Trump’s endorsement boosted Evette in the crowded primary, but she needs to work harder to define herself in the runoff.

“She has a squeaky clean record,” Woodard said. “You might say she hasn’t done anything — but she hasn’t done anything wrong.”

Scott Huffmon, a political science professor at Winthrop University, said Trump’s endorsement benefited Evette, but it wasn’t as impactful as one would expect in a ruby red state. While Wilson and Evette are both well-known in Republican circles, the lieutenant governor is a less familiar figure to voters.

“You go around to any state in the nation and ask someone on a street corner: Who is your lieutenant governor? A lot of people are gonna struggle,” Huffmon said.

Woodard said the two-week sprint to the runoff can be grueling for candidates already worn down by months of campaigning.

“You exhaust yourself trying to get to the runoff,” Woodard said. “Then you wake up the next morning and think: ‘Oh my gosh, we gotta do it all over again and we’re broke.’”

In the Democratic race, state Representative Jermaine Johnson, a nonprofit leader and former college hoopster, secured about 60% of the vote, soundly beating Greenville businessman Billy Webster and personal injury lawyer Mullins McLeod.

Webster secured about 30% of the vote and McLeod about 11%.

Johnson will face an uphill battle against his Republican opponent as he seeks to become the first Democrat elected governor since 1998.

Johnson was elected to the South Carolina House in 2020 after earning endorsements from civil rights attorney Bakari Sellers and former presidential candidate Andrew Yang. The 6-foot-7 former basketball player for College of Charleston lit up social media last year after giving an impassioned speech on the House floor opposing an anti-diversity, equity and inclusion provision in the state budget.

More than 300,000 residents voted early in the primary elections, more than double the turnout in 2024. About 845,000 votes were cast in the primary races for governor.

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