South Carolina Gov. McMaster heads to runoff
South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster (R) will face a runoff against a businessman making his first run for political office after he failed to win a majority of the primary vote on Tuesday.
McMaster, 71, who took the state’s top job after his predecessor Nikki Haley left to become President Trump’s ambassador to the United Nations, will face businessman John Warren (R) in a runoff election in two weeks.
Warren, 39, is the chief executive of Lima One Capital, a real estate lending firm. His business made him wealthy, and he threw $3 million of his own money into late advertisements that boosted his name recognition. Warren pitched himself as an outsider bent on reforming the Republican-led state legislature in Columbia.
With 55 percent of the precincts reporting, McMaster had taken 44 percent of the vote, compared with 25 percent for Warren. Catherine Templeton, a former member of Haley’s cabinet, earned 22 percent of the vote.
President Trump played a role in the race, albeit not the one he envisioned. McMaster was one of the first elected officials to back Trump during the 2016 Republican primary, and Trump returned the favor over the weekend with an endorsement via Twitter.
“Henry McMaster loves the people of South Carolina and was with me from the beginning,” Trump tweeted on Saturday. “He is doing a fantastic job as your Governor, and has my full endorsement, a special guy. Vote on Tuesday!”
But McMaster fell short of the 50 percent of the vote he needed to win the primary outright.
This is the second time McMaster has run for governor. In 2010, as the state’s sitting attorney general, he came in third behind Haley and then-Rep. Gresham Barrett (R) in the race to replace outgoing Gov. Mark Sanford (R). Haley won the runoff, and McMaster began his comeback four years later when he won election as the state’s lieutenant governor.
McMaster ascended to the top job when Haley left to accept Trump’s appointment to the U.N. ambassadorship.
The winner of the June 26 runoff will face state Rep. James Smith (D), an attorney and veteran of the war in Afghanistan who won the Democratic primary on Tuesday.
Smith has served in the state House for more than two decades. He earned endorsements from former Vice President Joe Biden and Rep. Jim Clyburn (D), the senior Democrat in South Carolina.
Copyright 2023 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
