South Carolina has its Republican nominee for governor. Attorney General Alan Wilson won Tuesday’s GOP runoff primary in convincing fashion, defeating Lieutenant Governor Pamela Evette by a wide margin and earning the right to represent his party in the November general election.
The race was an open contest from the start. Current Governor Henry McMaster is term-limited, leaving the seat up for grabs and drawing a crowded field of Republican hopefuls. The June 9 primary featured five candidates, including Wilson, Evette, U.S. Representatives Ralph Norman and Nancy Mace, and businessman Rom Reddy. With no candidate crossing the majority threshold needed to win outright, the top two finishers advanced to a runoff.
Evette led the first round with 136,480 votes, or 28.9 percent. Wilson came in second with 123,643 votes, about 26.2 percent. Norman finished third at 17.1 percent, followed by Reddy at 14.2 percent and Mace at 12.1 percent. More than 472,000 total votes were cast.
The rematch was not close. As originally reported, Wilson captured roughly 65.8 to 66.7 percent of the runoff vote compared to Evette’s 33.3 to 34.2 percent. Early returns showed him leading by more than 2-to-1 in multiple precincts. Decision Desk HQ called the race shortly after polls closed at 7:00 p.m. Eastern, with NBC News and others quickly following suit.
One notable wrinkle heading into the runoff was President Donald Trump’s endorsement situation. Trump had backed Evette exclusively on May 29, ahead of the initial primary. But in the days before the runoff, he issued a secondary endorsement that included Wilson, saying he did not want to hurt either finalist and that voters “can’t go wrong” with either candidate.
Wilson is no stranger to statewide office. He has served as South Carolina’s Attorney General since January 2011, first elected in 2010. A graduate of Francis Marion University and the University of South Carolina School of Law, he previously worked as both an assistant solicitor and an assistant attorney general before winning his first term.
His general election opponent will be Democrat Jermaine Johnson, who secured his party’s nomination on June 9 with 221,951 votes, capturing nearly 60 percent of the Democratic primary vote.
The November matchup will be competitive on paper, but history strongly favors Wilson. South Carolina has not sent a Democrat to the governor’s office since 1998, making him the clear frontrunner heading into the fall campaign.