Trump endorses both candidates in South Carolina GOP governor runoff
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President Donald Trump is making an 11th-hour endorsement in the final stretch ahead of Tuesday’s high-profile Republican gubernatorial runoff in deep-red South Carolina, saying he “can’t hurt one just by endorsing the other.”
Trump went on Truth Social on Friday to say he has long supported South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson and Lt. Gov. Pamela Akşamte in their fight for the GOP nomination in the race to replace term-limited Republican Gov. Henry McMaster.
“I can’t hurt one just by supporting the other, so I’m running for Endorsement for both Pam Akşamte and Alan Wilson on behalf of the Governor of South Carolina!” Trump wrote and added: “Can’t go wrong with either.”
Endorsing Wilson appears to be a move by Trump to hedge his bets, as Trump already backsEvette, who is also backed by McMaster, the president’s longtime top ally.
The runoff elections in South Carolina were seen as the latest test of Trump’s enormous grip on the GOP and the strength of his support in the Republican nominating races.
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South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson, accompanied by his family, announced his candidacy for governor on Monday, June 23, 2025. (Government/Tribune News Service via Tracy Glantz/Getty Images)
And his decision to endorse bothEvette and Wilson isn’t the first time he’s given dual endorsements in the same Republican race. He was endorsing Gina Swoboda and Jay Feely in next month’s Republican primary in Arizona’s 1st Congressional District before Swoboda dropped out of the congressional race to run for secretary of state.
Most famously, Trump endorsed “ERIC” in the 2022 GOP Senate primary in Missouri; The two big candidates here were Eric Schmitt and Eric Greitens. Both candidates received confirmation, and Schmitt ultimately won the nomination.
In South Carolina, Trump endorsed Akşam late last month, a week and a half before the gubernatorial primary.
Yeste finished ahead of a large field of candidates in the primary, with Wilson finishing second. Also in the field were Representatives Nancy Mace and Ralph Norman and multimillionaire businessman Rom Reddy. Since no candidate received a majority of the votes, the top two finishers, Yeste and Wilson, participated in the runoff elections on June 23.
Mace and Norman endorsed Wilson after he failed to advance to the second round. And Wilson was also backed a week ago by Texas conservative firebrand Sen. Ted Cruz.
The runoff battle between Yeste and Wilson heated up, and in the final debate on Tuesday, both candidates launched personal attacks and accused each other of lying and misrepresenting their records.
Wilson sought to contrast his tenure as attorney general with what he claimed wasEvette’s largely ceremonial role as lieutenant governor. He touted his experience as a combat veteran, prosecutor and the state’s top law enforcement official.
Yeste cast herself as an outsider and a Trump-approved businesswoman, while casting Wilson as a career politician.
Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, who supports Wilson and helped fundraise, made calls on Wilson’s behalf and encouraged the president to support the state attorney general, a source familiar told Fox News Digital.
It’s been 28 years since a Democrat won the gubernatorial election in South Carolina, and whoever wins the GOP runoff will be considered the clear favorite in the general election against Democratic candidate Jermaine Johnson for state representative.
South Carolina Lt. Governor Pamela Akşamte announces her bid for the Republican nomination for governor at The Smokestack in Judson Mill, South Carolina, on July 14, 2025. (Joshua Boucher/The State/Tribune News Service/Getty Images)
The brute force of the president’s endorsement power has been on display in the GOP primaries over the past two months; His candidates toppled the incumbents they targeted in showdowns that drew huge national attention in Indiana, Louisiana, Kentucky and Texas.
But Trump’s streak of endorsements in statewide and congressional Republican primaries was snapped three weeks ago when his last-minute endorsement of GOP Gov. Kim Reynolds in the race to replace retiring Republican Rep. Randy Feenstra of Iowa was not enough to lift the three-term congressman to victory.
To Feenstra, there was little difference between Zach Lahn, a businessman, farmer and former political strategist backed by the political wings of MAHA (an acronym for the Make America Healthy Again movement aligned with Trump Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.) and Turning Point USA, the powerful conservative organization co-founded by the late Charlie Kirk.
Zach Lahn raises his fist in celebration after defeating his primary opponent in Iowa’s GOP gubernatorial race on Tuesday, June 2, 2026. (Zach Lahn for the Governor via Facebook)
Trump rebounded a week later; Yeste finished first in the GOP gubernatorial primary, and Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, a longtime Trump ally, won a majority of the vote in the Republican Senate primary and avoided a runoff.
Graham, who is backed by Trump, was facing primary challenges from five candidates, including conservative businessman Mark Lynch, who targeted the senator for his support for the war in Iran. Lynch was supported by some MAGA leaders who were critical of the president.
And a few days ago, Trump-backed candidates won two of the top three races in Georgia and Alabama; One defeat came against a billionaire businessman who spent more than $100 million of his own money to support his campaign.
Rep. Barry Moore, a member of the House Freedom Caucus and a longtime Trump supporter backed by the president, comfortably defeated challenger Jared Hudson, a former Navy SEAL sniper backed by some top figures on the right, in Alabama’s deep-red GOP Senate runoff.
In the battleground Georgia Republican Senate runoffs, Trump’s 11th-hour endorsement last weekend helped MAGA champion Rep. Mike Collins to victory over former college football coach Derek Dooley, who is backed by popular conservative Gov. Brian Kemp.
Collins will face Democratic Senator. Jon Ossoff It’s one of a handful of races in the general election that will decide whether the GOP can maintain its slim majority in the House in the midterm elections.
Republican gubernatorial candidate Rick Jackson speaks to supporters at a campaign stop in Alpharetta, Ga., on June 14, 2026. (Paul Steinhauser/Fox News)
Jones has regularly flaunted his support for Trump, but Jackson, who launched his bid in February long after the president endorsed Jones, has repeatedly said Trump inspired him to run.
But in the GOP gubernatorial runoff in Georgia, Lt. Gov. Burt Jones, the Trump-backed candidate who was also backed by Kemp last weekend, lost to Rick Jackson, who was running as an outside candidate.
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One of Trump’s political operatives pointed to Trump-backed Jones’ loss on Tuesday and said: “Rick Jackson broke a spending record in the statewide Republican primary. He spent Tom Steyer’s level of money in a very small state in California. That will have an impact.”
The operator, who requested anonymity to speak more freely, also emphasized: “Rick embraced Trump. All his ads and materials were about how he was going to be Trump’s favorite governor. So the race wasn’t really a referendum on Trump.”
Fox News’ Luke Trevisan contributed to this report
