South Carolina voters are returning to the ballot box Tuesday for a series of runoff elections, headlined by a closely watched Republican primary battle for governor.
Attorney General Alan Wilson and Lieutenant Governor Pamela Evette are competing in a tight contest to secure the GOP nomination.
In a late Friday message on Truth Social, President Donald Trump told voters he “can’t hurt one of them by only Endorsing the other, so, therefore, I am going to Endorse, for Governor of South Carolina, both Pam Evette and Alan Wilson!”
Trump’s announcement came Friday night, after both days of early voting in South Carolina had already wrapped up. He resurfaced the same post Tuesday afternoon while issuing a flurry of additional political endorsements.
Evette has promoted herself as Trump’s endorsed candidate since receiving his backing in the primary at the end of May. Still, during remarks Saturday in Hilton Head, she emphasized that “nothing comes into play but turnout.”
The president’s last-minute decision to also embrace Wilson underscored the attorney general’s strong standing in the race.
“It doesn’t matter who endorsed you, doesn’t matter who didn’t endorse you, doesn’t matter how many commercials you have up,” Evette added.
Wilson enters the runoff as the frontrunner, with an NPA Polling survey showing him ahead of Evette among likely Republican runoff voters, 52 percent to 36 percent, while 13 percent remained undecided.
President Donald Trump gives thumbs-up as he boards Air Force One to depart Joint Base Andrews in May of 2026
South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson has picked up the endorsement of a number of his primary opponents in the gubernatorial runoff ahead of Tuesday’s election
South Carolina Republican gubernatorial runoff candidate Pamela Evette, during her primary election night watch party on June 9, 2026 in Greenville, South Carolina
Trump has offered a double endorsement before, when he endorsed ‘ERIC’ in the 2022 Senate primary between Eric Greitens and Eric Schmitt. Schmitt ended up winning that contest and was elected to be the state’s senator that year.
Katie Lane Shockley, a Republican who is voting for Wilson in the runoff, talked to the Daily Mail in Greenville on Thursday about 24 hours before Trump’s double endorsement.
‘We love Trump, and I voted for Trump, but I feel like he is too busy where he’s at, and he don’t understand what all is going on in South Carolina.’
‘The other candidates are representing Alan [Wilson], so that says a lot about what South Carolina wants,’ Shockley added, making a nod at a slew of Wilson endorsements.
Yet, after Trump’s Friday announcement, Skip Hoagland, a web entrepreneur and longtime conservative activist who is backing Evette in the runoff, didn’t seem to be a fan of Trump’s double endorsement.
‘We will forgive President Trump for simply not being fully informed about your opponent,’ Hoagland told Evette and a crowd of activists at a meeting of the Coastal Conservative Alliance in Hilton Head on Saturday evening, where Evette was the guest speaker at the group’s forty-first meeting in the primary season.
Hoagland was jailed in January 2025 after being charged with trespassing at a Beaufort County Republican Party meeting where Wilson was the guest speaker.
The group’s chair, Kevin Hennelly, told local media at the time that Hoagland had been detained as he attended the event, despite not having been a member in good standing with the group for several years.
Alan Wilson supporter Katie Lane Shockley spoke with the Daily Mail in Greenville on Thursday evening before president Trump endorsed both Evette and Wilson in the runoff contest
Mary Latimer-Chung was leaning toward backing Evette after hearing from her at meeting of the Coastal Conservative Alliance in Hilton Head on Saturday evening
Sean Foulis, longtime firefighter and Evette backer, also spoke with the Daily Mail on Saturday in Hilton Head
Mary Latimer-Chung, a lifelong New Yorker who moved to Hilton Head four and a half years ago in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, said she ‘didn’t know’ why Trump endorsed both candidates in the GOP runoff, outside of just giving both candidates an ‘even chance at winning.’ She was leaning toward supporting Evette.
Sean Foulis, a longtime James Island firefighter and union leader who is backing Evette in the runoff, also was not a fan of the double endorsement.
‘I don’t know exactly why he did it, I thought it was a very strange endorsement to come out and endorse both candidates, especially when he endorsed Pam early,’ Foulis told the Daily Mail, before adding, ‘I’m a little perplexed on that.’
Trump has picked two GOP primary candidates who have lost during the 2026 primary cycle.
Iowa congressman Randy Feenstra lost his state’s nominating contest to political outsider Zach Lahn on June 2nd, and just last week, Georgia Lieutenant Governor Burt Jones lost the Republican runoff for governor to billionaire entrepreneur Rick Jackson despite having the president’s endorsement.
Trump has easily carried South Carolina in all three of his presidential runs.
