2 weeks Ago
COLUMBIA — As of today, there is no campaign to be governor of South Carolina. Ahead of the 2026 Republican primary, no staff has been hired, no signs printed. And while the roster of possible contenders — U.
S. Rep. Nancy Mace, Attorney General Alan Wilson, Lt.
Gov. Pamela Evette, conservative millionaire businessman John Warren — is in the chatter world, consultants are quick to point out nobody has actually announced an intent to run. But whether voters are ready, the race is on.
And it was Mace who is firing the opening salvos. Speaking to reporters in Columbia ahead of an engagement with the Richland County GOP last week, Mace tore into Wilson — considered by most to be the early favorite for the Governor's Mansion — with unusual vigor and animosity. She called the former child sex crimes prosecutor a "do-nothing" attorney general who was soft on prosecuting child abuse and sexual assault.
Several weeks earlier at an event with South Carolina lobbyists and lawmakers, two sources confirmed she even told a state lawmaker she would put Wilson "in a body bag" in the race to come. "He has done nothing for women and girls," she told reporters Jan. 24.
"He won't prosecute child trafficking, he won't prosecute sex trafficking, he won't prosecute rape. He allows illegals to run rampant in our state, and he has no business even thinking about running for governor. And I will take him out.
I will personally make sure that he is never governor." "He's one of the worst attorney generals in the country," she added later. It was a splashy appearance that would surprise few who had observed Mace's rise to national prominence, a rise fueled by relentless television appearances, a ceaseless stream of social media posts and an unflinching courtship with controversy.
She sparred with John Monk, a longtime reporter for The State newspaper, who inquired about President Donald Trump's pardon of violent criminals involved in the Jan. 6 Capitol riots. She fired back at him under questioning, saying he was part of the legacy media and a "dying breed.
" She flirted with concepts once delegated to the furthest fringes of conservative politics, telling audience members she had been "red-pilled" (awakened) as she questioned the safety of the COVID-19 vaccine, revealed she had been using a vitamin regimen created by discredited cardiologist Peter McCullough and suggested autism in children could be cured through changes to their diet. And on social media, where her brand is strongest, her signature sign-off of "Lowcountry First" as the representative of the 1st congressional district has since morphed to " South Carolina First ," with increasing references in speeches and social media posts toward state-oriented issues: an elimination of the state's income tax, more aggressive reforms to the state judiciary. But her attacks against Wilson and, more recently, Evette, have comprised the brunt of her campaign, even as many of her claims are proven to be false or lacking in context.
Mace suggested in a social media post that Wilson had "copied" a photo opportunity she had with members of the South Carolina National Guard, even though Wilson has been an active duty member of the Guard for nearly three decades and served in active duty combat. South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson speaks to reporters in a park across the street from former President Donald Trump’s criminal trial in New York, Monday, May 20, 2024. Wilson, who has yet to declare, is considered an early favorite in the race for the South Carolina governor's mansion in 2026.
She suggested Wilson followed her lead in visiting the Greenwood County Republican Party this year, though Wilson had repeatedly visited their executive committee across his near-15 years in office. And in a broadside accusing Wilson of presiding over a 400 percent year-over-year increase in human trafficking reports in South Carolina several years ago, Mace declined to mention the increase was actually due to what staff in Wilson's office identified as increased use of the office's human trafficking hotline as well as a 2020 statutory change requiring the office to incorporate labor trafficking reports into the state's numbers. "Though Congresswoman Mace’s comments are misguided, we understand why this issue resonates so deeply with her," Wilson's office said in a statement pointing to her history as a survivor of sexual assault.
The real key to getting an inside edge with Republican primary voters is not necessarily having the surest grip on policy matters, observers argue, it's about gaining the ear and endorsement of Trump, whose kingmaker status in the party has persisted. Mace herself acknowledged the importance of Trump's endorsement while talking to reporters, expressly saying she believed Trump needed to "weigh in on some of these elections." "At this point, candidates are vying for President Trump's endorsement both privately and publicly," said Justin Evans, a political consultant and former director of special projects for Trump's South Carolina campaign last cycle.
"President Trump's support will ultimately determine who becomes the next governor of South Carolina," he added. There are still questions of how Mace — whose first and only foray into statewide politics in 2014 resulted in a 6 percent performance in the Republican primary for U.S.
Senate versus incumbent Lindsey Graham — will perform outside of the Lowcountry, particularly given her relative inexperience on state-level issues. Asked by reporters how she would replace lost revenue from eliminating the state income tax, Mace offered relatively few details beyond a gradual, phased-in approach that current Gov. Henry McMaster has already endorsed.
Asked her thoughts on the McMaster's nomination of Dr. Edward Simmer to lead the state Department of Public Health — a key issue for hardline conservatives — by an audience member, Mace confessed she did not know who Simmer was. (The former Navy doctor has led South Carolina's public health response since being appointed head of the former Department of Health and Environmental Control in 2021.
) And where Wilson has been unapologetic about his anti-abortion stance, Mace has frequently been at-odds with her party on abortion and could struggle with evangelical voters in pockets like the Upstate. "I have the same abortion stance as Donald Trump, and Donald Trump was overwhelmingly elected all across the state of South Carolina," she told reporters. Lt.
Governor Pam Evette makes a toast Brian Johnston with a sampling of beer from the future Brewery Peak Drift. Out of the spotlight, the race has already begun. As Wilson begins dipping his toe into the prospect of a gubernatorial run — he told the Hilton Head Island Packet ahead of a Jan.
24 appearance at the Beaufort County Republican Party he was "considering" getting into the race — Evette has been ramping up her retail-level appearances for months, with her most recent at the South Carolina Federation of Republican Women's winter meeting in Columbia on Feb. 1. Within Evette's camp, the number of prospective donors and business leaders urging her to run have only escalated as Mace publicly mulls her run, they said.
Meanwhile, conservative activists satisfied with the progress the state has made under nearly one decade of McMaster see Evette as a stable and conservative successor who would be able to put her own stamp on the office. "She knows the ins and outs," said Don Bowne, a Myrtle Beach-area political activist who has been a vocal advocate for Evette to get into the race. "She probably knows what she would do differently, but she's not going to go on the record and say that to embarrass our governor, because that's not who she is.
" There's also the question of who lawmakers will support. Where McMaster brought a noncombative posture to the governor's mansion that has resulted in significant legislative gains for conservatives over his eight years in office, Mace has signaled her intentions to bring a more pugilistic approach if elected — similar to the approach deployed by McMaster's predecessor, Nikki Haley, during her time in office. Others, like former Gov.
Mark Sanford, butted heads with the legislature on issues like the budget and lost. One session, Sanford issued 52 vetoes to the budget, all of which were overridden by the House. Rather than the collaborative approach deployed by McMaster, Mace said she would use the bully pulpit of the governor's seat to deploy “figurative violence” to put people in tough positions as policymakers to enact conservative policies.
“You have to strike the fear of god in people," she said. Whether that will help her attract the surrogates necessary to succeed statewide is to be determined. Haley had few friends left during her recent run against Trump for the presidency.
Most current and former lawmakers during her term ultimately endorsed her opponent . Some prospective voters, like Irmo resident Sion Owen, say early on they like Mace's approach, adding it reminded them of Haley. "I think the state legislature — even though we've got a super majority — is still a 'Good Old Boy' system, and there's really not a lot of standing up to it," he said.
"We're a Republican state, but we are highly Democratic in a lot of our policies. From the local level to the city level, it just needs to change. I mean we need to really turn South Carolina into what we've voted it to be.
" Whether other voters agree remains to be seen. In a straw poll of the Beaufort County Republican Party — which sits in the southern bottom of Mace's congressional district — during the last week of January, 31 percent of members said Wilson was their top choice for governor, while Evette was ranked second with 29 percent. Local longtime favorite state Sen.
Tom Davis, who is not running, earned 27 percent of the vote. Mace finished fourth, with 11 percent..
