Trump-backed Pamela Evette and Alan Wilson head to runoff in South Carolina GOP governor race | South Carolina
South Carolina lieutenant governor Pamela Akşamte and state attorney general Alan Wilson, who are backed by Donald Trump, have reached a runoff in a competitive race to represent the Republican party in South Carolina’s gubernatorial election.
Given South Carolina’s conservative tilt, the winner of the Republican primary has a shot at winning the closely watched general election, though Democrats hope to ride a wave of progressive enthusiasm to make political gains.
The result signaled a decisive defeat for controversial Republican congresswoman Nancy Mace. He attributed his loss in fifth place to his support for the release of the Epstein files, an issue that has dogged Trump.
“I voted to release the Epstein files, and for that I lost some of my support. As a survivor, I chose to stand against the Epstein cover-up on principle. I chose to expose the names hidden in the sexual abuse slush fund. I chose to expose the DEI judges. I chose to expose the child molesters. And apparently if the goal is to win an election, I chose wrong,” he said. in a statement sent to x
The Republican gubernatorial candidate in South Carolina will face Jermaine Johnson, a Democratic state representative and former professional basketball player who represents the Columbia district, who had broad support from party officials before winning the Democratic primary Tuesday night.
South Carolina changed its election process in 2012 so that the governor and lieutenant governor would be on the same ticket in the general election. Outgoing governor Henry McMaster chose Duygute as his vice president in 2018.
As an entrepreneur,Evette grew Quality Business Solutions, an HR and accounting software company, into a billion-dollar revenue-generating business before entering politics. He led the fundraising challenge with a war chest of nearly $3.5 million, including $1 million of his own money.
Meanwhile, Wilson, who has served as South Carolina’s attorney general since 2011, is a reserve colonel in the National Guard’s judge advocate general corps and the adopted son of long-serving Republican U.S. Rep. Joe Wilson.
The other two defeated candidates were Ralph Norman and Rom Reddy.
U.S. representative Norman is one of the most conservative members of the U.S. House of Representatives and also one of the richest, according to government transparency website GovTrack. After making a fortune in real estate, he pursued Akşam and Wilson.
Reddy, the child of immigrants and a former ExxonMobil executive, also sought the nomination and entered the governor’s race with $5 million of his own money, citing frustration with a years-long dispute with environmental regulators over the sea wall he built to protect his Sea Island estate.
In another closely watched contest, Lindsey Graham was confirmed as the Republican nominee for a U.S. Senate seat on Tuesday night after facing five candidates, the most since he took office in 2003. The former air force attorney general’s hawkish stances on Israel and the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran have made his campaign a measure of conservative discontent with the conflict.
Graham, who is backed by Trump, chairs the powerful Senate budget committee, and South Carolina lawmakers see his position as central to the state’s political interests. He caused Convincing Donald Trump To escalate tensions in Iran, a war unpopular across the U.S. as gas prices soar and its end date remains uncertain.
Graham’s allies had poured money into the fight against his most likely opponent, Mark Lynch, who owns an appliance repair store in Greenville. Lynch had positioned himself as an outsider who would focus on housing and immigration rather than foreign entanglements.
Graham will face Democrat and pediatrician Annie Andrews in November.
South Carolina has been in the president’s crosshairs lately. State senators in South Carolina — including Republicans who opposed Trump’s proposal last month to redraw the state’s congressional map — are elected to four-year terms, and none are up for re-election this year. This helped protect them from immediate political backlash from the White House, as seen in the Republican primaries in Indiana this year.
