With 65% of ballots counted, Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette led the Republican gubernatorial primary with 29.5% of the vote, according to the Associated Press. State Attorney General Alan Wilson followed at 26.2%. Both will compete in a June 23 runoff.
President Donald Trump endorsed Evette, who served as outgoing Gov. Henry McMaster’s running mate since 2018. Evette grew an HR and accounting software company, Quality Business Solutions, into a billion-dollar business and raised about $3.5 million for the race, including $1 million of her own money, according to The Guardian.
Wilson, who has been attorney general since 2011, is a reserve colonel in the national guard’s judge advocate general corps and the adoptive son of former U.S. Rep. Joe Wilson.
Rep. Ralph Norman took 16.5%, businessman Rom Reddy had 14.7%, and Nancy Mace received 11.6%, according to the AP.
Mace, the first woman to graduate from the Citadel and a former moderate who later aligned with Trump, said in a statement posted to X that she lost support because she “voted to release the Epstein files.” She said she “chose to expose the names hidden in the sexual harassment slush fund” and that she “apparently chose wrong if the goal was winning an election.”
The Wall Street Journal reported that Mace’s campaign had been shadowed by controversy, including a dispute over an airport security detail and a breakup with her ex-fiancé. Mace had compared herself to Margaret Thatcher on social media in the final days.
Sen. Lindsey Graham, who chairs the Senate Budget Committee and has been a key ally in pushing Trump’s hawkish policy on Iran, won renomination easily. Graham, a former Air Force attorney, faced five challengers in what the Guardian said was the most crowded field since he took office in 2003. His leading opponent, Mark Lynch, had positioned himself as an outsider focused on housing and immigration.
Graham will face Democrat and pediatrician Annie Andrews in November.
South Carolina changed its election process in 2012 so that the governor and lieutenant governor run on the same ticket in the general election. The Republican nominee will face Democratic state Rep. Jermaine Johnson, who won the Democratic primary Tuesday. Johnson, a former professional basketball player, received broad endorsement from party officials.