COLUMBIA — U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham walloped his GOP challengers Tuesday on the way to fulfilling his pledge to be President Donald Trump’s “best ally” in the U.S. Senate.
When The Associated Press called the race about 9 p.m., Graham had more than 58% of the vote to again avoid a primary runoff, continuing an unbroken record. In November, he will face Democrat Annie Andrews, who won a three-way primary for the chance to be South Carolina’s first Democrat to win a U.S. Senate seat in 28 years.
First elected to the Senate in 2002, Graham has never needed a runoff. Tuesday marked the third time he’s fended off crowded GOP fields: In 2020, he bested three GOP opponents with almost 68% of the vote. In 2014, he took 56% of the vote in a seven-way race.
His bid for a fifth term brought an early endorsement from Trump in March 2025.
The president reminded voters of his “complete and total endorsement” during a tele-rally Monday evening. He credited Graham with helping deliver last summer’s “big, beautiful” law, which cut taxes while providing $170 billion toward immigration enforcement. On Tuesday, Republicans in Congress finalized approval of an additional $70 billion.
Trump also called Graham an “unwavering champion for a strong military,” to include “fighting with me all the way” to end Iran’s nuclear activities.
But the war with Iran, which started in late February with a bombing by U.S. and Israeli forces, also provided a point of attack for Graham’s challengers.
Graham’s best-funded GOP opponent, Upstate businessman Mark Lynch, blamed the war on Graham, saying the president was listening to the senator and his interventionist calls for a strike.
Graham has advocated a direct confrontation with Iran for over a decade, saying from the outset that the Obama administration’s 2015 nuclear deal with Iran wouldn’t stop the country from pursuing nuclear weapons.
Lynch, who largely self-funded his campaign, brands himself as the “America first” conservative. He also faulted Graham as insufficiently loyal to the president, pointing to Graham’s sometimes-rocky relationship with Trump ahead of and during his first term. Graham briefly competed against Trump for the 2016 GOP nomination but withdrew in late 2015 ahead of South Carolina’s presidential primary.
On Monday, Trump said he and Graham are “best of friends,” discounting their days of disagreement as a long time ago. And Trump noted that Graham was an early backer of his 2024 bid.
“Ever since we really got together and got to know each other, he’s been absolutely fantastic,” Trump said on the 20-minute, call-in election rally.
Trump also publicly opposed Lynch. In a post in April on his social media platform Truth Social, Trump called Lynch a lunatic who “would be a DISASTER for the Republican Party.” Trump also blasted former candidate Paul Dans in an April post announcing his withdrawal from the contest. Dans, who worked in the first Trump administration and had long pitched himself as a truer Trump loyalist than Graham, endorsed Lynch as he made his own announcement about 30 minutes later.
In thanking Trump for the wholehearted endorsement, Graham said Monday he’ll return the favor by getting “as many conservative judges on the bench as we can” in Trump’s last two years.
Graham is currently Senate Budget chairman. If re-elected, he could again chair the Senate Judiciary Committee, a role he held from 2019 to 2021.
“I’ll wake up every morning and go to bed every night working with President Trump to put judges on the court,” Graham said during the call.
Graham’s 2002 election replaced U.S. Sen. Strom Thurmond, who left office at age 100 after 47 years in the U.S. Senate. He was first elected to Congress in 1994, when he became the first Republican elected to the 3rd District since Reconstruction. That followed one term in the state House.
No U.S. senator from South Carolina has lost a re-election race in 82 years.
Seanna Adcox is a South Carolina native with three decades of reporting experience. After covering the S.C. Legislature and state politics for 18 years. she launched the SC Daily Gazette in November 2023 as the 37th state affiliate under the States Newsroom umbrella. Her previous employers include The Post and Courier and The Associated Press.
SC Daily Gazette is part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization.
Runoffs will determine GOP nominees for attorney general, agriculture commissioner
BY: JESSICA HOLDMAN - JUNE 9, 2026 10:54 PM UPDATED JUNE 10, 2026 6:15 AM
COLUMBIA — A state senator from the Grand Strand and a three-term solicitor from the Upstate will face off in a GOP primary runoff in the race to become South Carolina’s next top prosecutor.
None of the three Republican candidates running for attorney general topped 50% of the primary vote.
State Sen. Stephen Goldfinch and 8th Circuit Solicitor David Stumbo were the top two vote-getters, earning 40% of the vote and 36% respectively, in an attorney general’s race that is wide open for the first time in 16 years.
The other Republican candidate, First Circuit Solicitor David Pascoe, received 24% of the vote, according to unofficial state Election Commission results after all votes were tallied.
The Associated Press called the race at 9:30 p.m. with 64% of ballots counted.
The winner will take on Democrat Richard Hricik, a Charleston personal injury attorney, in November. They are vying to replace Attorney General Alan Wilson, who advanced to a GOP runoff in the governor’s race.
Goldfinch, a state senator who lives in Murrells Inlet, was first elected to the state House in 2012. Four years later, voters from Georgetown and Horry counties elected him to the Senate.
The married father of two holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees from The Citadel and a law degree from the Charleston School of Law. The business owner-turned-lawyer is also a captain in the South Carolina Army National Guard, who deployed in 2023 to Africa.
Stumbo, the chief prosecutor for Abbeville, Greenwood, Newberry and Laurens counties, was first elected in 2012. Previously, he worked in the attorney general’s office and as an assistant solicitor in Lexington County.
The father of four lives with his wife and daughters in Greenwood.
Meanwhile, Pascoe, the chief prosecutor for Calhoun, Dorchester and Orangeburg counties, was an elected Democrat until last year.
He switched to the Republican Party in April 2025 as he publicly mulled a bid for attorney general. First elected solicitor in 2004, Pascoe said the Democratic Party deserted him by taking positions opposite from his own. But people in both parties criticized the move as solely political to help his chances statewide.
South Carolina hasn’t elected a Democrat as attorney general in 36 years. And no Democrat has won any statewide office since 2006.
In a social media post ahead of the primary, President Donald Trump urged South Carolinians to vote against Pascoe, who the president called a “RINO,” short for Republican in name only, calling him a “total fraud and phony, and no friend of our incredible Movement.”
Anti-Pascoe TV ads and four-page mailers funded by a political action committee not connected to any candidate — a so-called dark money group — featured him campaigning for Hillary Clinton and President Joe Biden.
Yet, ultra-conservative Republicans embraced Pascoe and his pledge to root out corruption in Columbia.
Agriculture commissioner
The unusually competitive race to be South Carolina’s next agriculture commissioner is also heading to a runoff.
With all votes counted, less than 4,000 votes separated the top two vote-getters in the four-way GOP race, according to unofficial State Election Commission results.
Cody Simpson, who is endorsed by President Donald Trump and Gov. Henry McMaster, led slightly with 38% of the vote. Danny Ford II, the son of Clemson University’s first national championship football coach, had 37%.
The winner of the runoff will take on Democrat DeShawn Blanding of Manning.
Simpson advances a day after Trump restated his endorsement of McMaster’s former agriculture adviser and chief executive assistant. Trump first endorsed Simpson in February, two weeks ahead of him launching his bid.
Simpson left the governor’s office last May, after the Trump administration appointed him as the U.S. Department of Agriculture Farm Service Agency’s executive director for South Carolina.
Simpson’s family farm is in the unincorporated Home Branch community in Clarendon County, where he said he was working at the family general store by age 10.
The Ford family has raised cattle in Central since his father, legendary coach Danny Ford, acquired the Pickens County farm in 1982.
Last year, they lost about a quarter of their cattle due to blue-green algae, which can quickly sicken and kill livestock that swallow the toxins that bloom in water. It was that crisis that Ford, a married father of two, said prompted him to run for office.
In addition to raising cattle in Central, Ford has a 180,000-square-foot greenhouse on the family farm in Travelers Rest, north of Greenville, where he grows plants including hemp, a cousin of marijuana.
Jeremy Cannon, a fourth-generation farmer from Turbeville, held nearly 14% of the vote.
And Fred West, the candidate who had the backing of retiring Commissioner Hugh Weathers, held just shy of 11%.
Weathers is retiring after 22 years leading the state Department of Agriculture. He was first appointed to the job in 2004.
The commissioner oversees an agency of about 250 full-time employees with duties that include promoting the state’s various agribusiness sectors, keeping the food supply safe, and — since 2024 — handling all inspections of places that sell food, such as restaurants and cafeterias.
Superintendent of education
In the race to lead South Carolina’s K-12 public schools, Democrat Sylvia Wright will challenge incumbent Ellen Weaver in November.
Wright led the primary with nearly 62% of the vote when Lisa Ellis, a student activities director from Blythewood, conceded. It was Ellis’ second bid to be the state superintendent of education. She lost to Weaver four years ago.
After all votes were counted, Ellis had 39% of the vote, according to unofficial results from the state Election Commission.
Wright, 45, most recently worked as a district coordinator for Dorchester 4, ran on the promise she would work with First Steps, the agency overseeing publicly funded preschool classes in childcare centers and private schools, to advocate for universal pre-K. That would open eligibility to all students, regardless of their parents’ income.
Wright said she spent years teaching before moving into more administrative roles. Originally from South Carolina, she also taught at schools in Maryland and Texas before moving back to the Palmetto State in 2019.
In other races, Democrat Vincent Coe, a former federal bank examiner, defeated former state Democratic Party Chairman Trav Robertson with 56% of the vote, according to the state Election Commission’s unofficial results. Coe will go up against incumbent Treasurer Curtis Loftis for the position of South Carolina’s investment banker.
And Democrat Tiffany Boozer had a commanding lead in the race to be South Carolina’s next comptroller general, with 74% of the vote over Bruce Cole, according to the state tally.
Republican Michael Burkhold had no primary opposition to be the state’s top accountant. Boozer already works in the state comptroller general’s office as an internal auditoThis article has been updated with percentages after all votes were counted, as per the state Election Commission's unofficial results.
Evette, Wilson head to runoff in SC governor’s race. Johnson clinches Democratic nomination.
BY: JESSICA HOLDMAN - JUNE 9, 2026 9:36 PM
COLUMBIA — South Carolina’s top prosecutor and lieutenant governor are headed to a June 23 runoff in the GOP bid for the Governor’s Mansion, while a state representative from the Midlands won the Democratic nomination.
The winner of the Republican runoff will go up against state Rep. Jermaine Johnson in November.
Lt. Gov. Pam Evette and Attorney General Alan Wilson were the top two vote-getters in the five-way Republican gubernatorial primary. When The Associated Press called the race about 9 p.m., Evette led with 29% of the vote to Wilson’s 26% respectively.
In South Carolina, a candidate needs more than half of the votes to avoid a runoff.
Trailing behind were U.S. Rep. Ralph Norman, millionaire businessman Rom Reddy, and U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace.
Evette advanced to the runoff 11 days after President Donald Trump endorsed her bid to replace Gov. Henry McMaster, who endorsed her back in February.
The president reaffirmed his endorsement of the 58-year-old accountant in a Monday night tele-rally.
“She is going to be a great governor to take the place of an already great governor,” Trump told listeners. “You have a great governor. You’re going to have one that’s going to be — I can’t say better — she’ll be as good, because you can’t get better than Henry.”
The race marks Evette’s first as a solo candidate. McMaster picked her in November 2017 ahead of his first election as the state’s CEO. That 2018 race marked the first time in South Carolina that candidates for governor and lieutenant governor ran on a joint ticket.
Originally from Ohio, Evette moved to South Carolina two decades ago. The mother of three was CEO of Quality Business Solutions, an outsourcing payroll and human resources firm operating out of Travelers Rest for clients nationwide.
The last time a lieutenant governor successfully made the leap to the Governor’s Mansion was in 1970, when Democrat John West beat out Republican Congressman Albert Watson.
McMaster was also Wilson’s former boss in the attorney general’s office.
Former assistant attorney general under McMaster, Wilson was first elected the state’s chief prosecutor in 2010, when McMaster made an unsuccessful bid for governor.
Wilson, the son of U.S. Rep. Joe Wilson of South Carolina’s 2nd District, is now the nation’s longest-serving attorney general.
The 52-year-old father of two lives in Lexington. He also served for nearly three decades in the Army National Guard.
In the race for governor, Evette raised a total of $4.5 million for her campaign, including a $1 million personal loan, according to late May filings with the state elections office. Wilson raised $3.2 million.
Both head into the runoff with more than half a million dollars on hand.
On the Democratic side, Johnson, of Hopkins, took the nomination outright with 58% of the vote as of 8:45 p.m.
The Associated Press called the race with 53% of ballots counted.
The win makes Johnson the first Black nominee for governor of South Carolina in 36 years. Before him, it was Democratic state Sen. Theo Mitchell, of Greenville, who in 1990 unsuccessfully challenged then-incumbent Gov. Carroll Campbell.
Billy Webster, an Upstate businessman who worked for former Gov. Dick Riley and in the Clinton administration, followed with 31% of the vote. And Charleston attorney Mullins McLeod came in third with just shy of 11% of the vote.
Johnson first won a seat in the Statehouse in 2020 after ousting, in the Democratic primary, 22-year veteran Rep. Jimmy Bales, a former Richland County Councilman and longtime principal of Lower Richland High School.
Two years later, after the post-census redrawing of voting lines put Johnson in the same House district as fellow Hopkins Democrat Wendy Brawley, he ousted her from the seat she’d held since 2017.
The 40-year-old father of four was born in Los Angeles, where he overcame a host of childhood struggles, including losing his brother to gun violence when Johnson was 5 years old. His family was homeless during Johnson’s teenage years, living in motels.
Then, in 2004, a basketball scholarship brought Johnson to the College of Charleston, where his 1,276 points still rank 21st in program history. He went on to earn a spot in a developmental league for NBA prospects before stints playing professionally in Canada, Portugal, Mexico and Brazil.
After his basketball career, he returned to South Carolina, starting New Economic Beginnings Foundation, a nonprofit aimed to aid troubled children and military veterans.
For the primary, Johnson raised more than $450,000 and has $80,000 on hand, according to late May filings with the state elections office.
It’s been 28 years since voters elected a Democrat as governor. In 1998, then-Rep. Jim Hodges ousted GOP Gov. David Beasley.
The last time a Democrat won any statewide office in South Carolina was 2006.
Jessica Holdman writes about the economy, workforce and higher education. Before joining the SC Daily Gazette, she was a business reporter for The Post and Courier.
SC Daily Gazette is part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization.
US Reps. Wilson and Timmons each beat 2 GOP challengers. Clyburn cruises toward 18th term.
Three of South Carolina’s seven representatives had primary opponents. Two Republicans running for governor created vacancies.
BY: SKYLAR LAIRD - JUNE 9, 2026 7:52 PM
COLUMBIA — Three of South Carolina’s congressional incumbents easily defeated their primary challengers, while the state’s most crowded contest headed to a runoff.
U.S. Reps. Joe Wilson and Willliam Timmons each beat two Republican challengers to advance to November. Both had Trump’s endorsement.
When The Associated Press called both races around 8:30 p.m., Wilson was winning with 75% of the vote, while Timmons had 68%.
Wilson defeated Sam Gibbons, a veteran who teaches military preparatory classes to students, and Hamp Redmond, a Lexington County contractor, in the 2nd District.
Gibbons also organized several No Kings rallies protesting Trump, which he emphasized at the time were not just for Democrats but for anyone unhappy with the administration.
If Wilson wins the November election in the safely red district, the 78-year-old Army veteran will serve a 13th full term in office. Voters first elected Wilson to Congress in a 2001 special election after the death of U.S Rep. Floyd Spence.
“A retired Colonel from the South Carolina Army National Guard, and Member of the House Armed Services Committee, Joe knows the Wisdom and Courage that is required to Defend our Country, Support our Incredible Military/Veterans, and Champion PEACE THROUGH STRENGTH,” Trump wrote in a post supporting Wilson on Monday.
A runoff will decide who Wilson will face in November.
In a four-way Democratic primary, the top two vote-getters were David Robinson II, a disabled Army veteran, and Zyon Khalifa, who recently graduated from law school after serving four years in the Air Force. When the AP called the race about 9:35 p.m., Robinson had 42% of the vote, and Khalifa had 33%.
It would be Robinson’s second bid to unseat Wilson. Two years ago, Wilson beat him with 60% of the vote.
The 2nd Congressional District stretches from the Georgia border, including all of Aiken and Barnwell counties, to northern Richland County. It includes all of Wilson’s home county of Lexington and a western chunk of Orangeburg County.
Timmons, who got Trump’s endorsement back in October, beat out two challengers to compete for a fifth term representing South Carolina’s most compact district. The 4th District spans most of Greenville and Spartanburg counties.
Timmons, who has said this race would be his last, defeated Maldin mechanical engineer Robert E. Lee and David Atchley, a fundraising consultant and son of late Clemson University President Bill Atchley.
One Democrat, 25-year-old activist Courtney McClain, and one Libertarian, activist Jessica Ethridge, will appear on the ballot against Timmons in November.
1st District
The state’s most contested contest featured 10 Republicans (after former Gov. Mark Sanford withdrew) and seven Democrats competing to replace U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace, who lost her bid for governor on Tuesday.
On the Republican side, Charleston County Councilwoman Jenny Costa Honeycutt, an attorney, and state Rep. Mark Smith, who owns a funeral home on Daniel Island, will compete in the June 23 runoff. Smith replaced Mace in the state House when she won the 1st District in 2020.
Honeycutt had 22% of the vote when The AP called the race at 9:55 p.m., and Smith had 18%, with 91% of the votes counted.
The two Democrats who advanced to the runoff are retired-Vice Adm. Nancy Lacore and Mac Deford.
Lacore, former chief of Navy Reserve, had 36% of the vote when the AP called the race about 8:40 p.m.
Deford, a Coast Guard veteran and Charleston-area attorney, was in second place at the time with 32%.
6th District
U.S. Rep. Jim Clyburn, the state’s only Democrat in Congress, easily defeated challenger Frederick Goodwin toward his bid for an 18th term in the 6th District.
The Associated Press called the race with just 12% of the votes counted, with Clyburn taking 92% of them as of 7:46 p.m.
The 85-year-old has garnered significant influence in Washington during his 34 years in office, spending two stints as House majority whip and as assistant leader for the Democrats. In 2020, it was Clyburn’s endorsement ahead of South Carolina’s primary that rescued then-Vice President Joe Biden’s faltering presidential campaign and catapulted him to the White House.
Goodwin, his primary challenger, had no campaign website and reported no fundraising in his bid for Congress. He ran unsuccessfully for Santee Town Council last year.
Clyburn will face Republican John Peterson in November. The banquet supervisor for a North Charleston hotel won the GOP primary with roughly three-fourths of the vote over Maurice Washington, a Charleston financial advisor. One Alliance Party candidate is also running.
A GOP push to redraw South Carolina’s congressional voting lines, in an effort to create a 7-0 Republican delegation, failed two weeks ago. That leaves the 6th District a blue stronghold in the otherwise red state.
After being the AP’s first call of South Carolina’s primary elections, Clyburn said he’s “humbled and honored” to again be the nominee.
“South Carolina has made tremendous progress, but a lot still needs to be done,” he said in a statement. “If reelected, I promise to fight against the forces of retrogression, continue standing up for the values and interests that matter most to all South Carolinians, and continue our pursuit towards a more perfect Union.”
Two other incumbents in South Carolina’s congressional delegation faced primary challengers. Two Republicans ran for governor, creating open races for the 1st and 5th districts.
Other Democratic primaries
In the 3rd District (which includes Laurens County), Eunice Lehmacher, a professional counselor in Clemson, clinched the Democratic nomination to challenge U.S. Rep. Sheri Biggs in November.
Biggs, a freshman, had no primary challenger for her second term.
Lehmacher defeated Ernest Mackins, a retired teacher, Army veteran and pastor at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Anderson. Lehmacher had 53% of the vote when The AP called the race at 9:49 p.m., with 87% of ballots counted.
In the 5th District, Mallory Dittmer, a Fort Mill-based brand and campaign consultant, will challenge Republican Sen. Wes Climer.
Climer, a financial advisor first elected to the state Senate a decade ago, ran unopposed for the Republican nomination to replace U.S. Rep. Ralph Norman, who lost his bid for governor Tuesday.
Dittmer had 54% of the vote as of 9:55 p.m., when The AP called the vote, with 77% of ballots counted. She defeated Andrew Clough, a ramp agent for American Airlines who lives in Rock Hill.
Climer and Dittmer will also face Forward Party candidate Andy Kaplan.
The only congressional race not on either party’s primary ballot was the 7th District. Republican U.S. Rep. Russell Fry and the Democrat challenging him, John Gregory Vincent, had no opposition in the primary.
Skylar Laird covers the South Carolina Legislature and criminal justice issues. Originally from Missouri, she previously worked for The Post and Courier’s Columbia bureau.
SC Daily Gazette is part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization
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