Evette and Wilson head to runoff in South Carolina governor race

The South Carolina governor’s race is now a test of whether Donald Trump’s stamp can outrun the state’s Republican establishment, or whether long-held local power still decides who gets through. Pamela Evette and Alan Wilson advanced to a June 23 runoff after no candidate in the six-person GOP primary cleared the majority needed to avoid another round, leaving Nancy Mace on the outside despite her national profile.

With about 50% of the vote counted, CBS News reported Evette at 71,904 votes, or 28.9%, and Wilson at 65,122, or 26.1%. Ralph Norman trailed with 41,913 votes, Rom Reddy had 37,844, Mace finished fifth with 28,093, Joshua Kimbrell had 2,177, and Jacqueline DuBose had 2,033. The result keeps alive a race that has been unusually open: Gov. Henry McMaster is term-limited, making this South Carolina’s first open governor’s contest since 2010.

Evette, the state’s lieutenant governor, benefited from Trump’s late endorsement, a move that carried real weight in a primary built around the former president’s influence. She said afterward that Trump’s support was “rocket fuel” for her first-place finish. Wilson, who has served as South Carolina’s attorney general for more than 15 years, leaned on a message of stability and economic pressure, saying voters wanted a governor who would “fight for their families, lower costs, keep communities safe, and put taxpayers first.”

Mace’s campaign showed how far a national brand can travel in South Carolina, and where it still stops. She entered the race after sparring with Trump and cast her bid as a stand “on principle” by opposing the Epstein cover-up, but that posture did not translate into enough votes in a field crowded with familiar Republican names and state-level experience. The early numbers also showed the scale of Republican turnout: the South Carolina Election Commission reported more than 318,600 early ballots statewide, a record for the state.

The runoff now decides who will become the heavy favorite in November, when South Carolina is likely to stay in Republican hands. The state has elected only Republican governors since 2003, and the June 23 contest will determine whether Trump’s endorsement or the party’s local machinery has the stronger grip on the GOP’s future.