Is SC’s McMaster more like a ‘governor 50 years ago’?

As Gov. Henry McMaster warned South Carolinians about Hurricane Irma, his Southern drawl and folksy manner were on full display.

“This is a state of emergency, meaning we are in a state of emergency,” McMaster said plainly. “Car’s battery been dead? Better fix it. ... If you don’t have a map on how to get around, better get one.”

To some, the 70-year-old McMaster delivered the kind of down-to-earth message he’s known for – the kind that South Carolinians needed at that moment. To others, McMaster’s style and speech – whether discussing the hurricane, or sharing adages and parables from the stump – is reminiscent of a governor of a bygone era, calling into question his ability to connect with younger voters, in particular.

“If you look at Henry and you listen to him, he could have been a South Carolina governor 50 years ago,” said retired Francis Marion University political scientist Neal Thigpen, a longtime GOP activist who has known McMaster for decades.

Many Republican activists are reluctant to say anything negative about McMaster before next June’s GOP primary.

But the Richland Republican might struggle to connect with millennial voters, one suggested. However, with nearly 80 percent of GOP primary voters age 45 or older, losing the youth vote isn’t a deal breaker.

“Age is just a number on your birth certificate,” said Aiken real-estate agent Jane Page Thompson, adding she doesn’t consider a candidate’s age when voting.

Still, in assessing the style of the four declared Republican candidates for governor, Thompson gave distinctly different descriptions of the choices GOP voters will have next June.

Challenger Catherine Templeton would be the “get on my train-type leader like we had with” former Gov. Nikki Haley, whose January resignation to become U.S. ambassador to the United Nations elevated then-Lt. Gov. McMaster to governor, Thompson said of the Charleston attorney and former Haley cabinet member. Templeton, Thompson added, is “the determined aunt who will succeed come hell or high water.”

McMaster is the “legislative statesman” or “the uncle everybody loves.”

Age an issue before

It’s likely McMaster’s younger opponents – the 46-year-old Templeton is nearly a quarter-century younger than the governor – will try to exploit his age and mannerisms for political gain.

The strategy has been tried before.

During a debate in the 2014 lieutenant governor’s race, former state Rep. Bakari Sellers, the Democrat running against McMaster, said: “If there’s any politician in the state that represents yesterday, it’s him. ... Henry’s gray hair doesn’t denote leadership and vision.”

McMaster handily defeated Sellers.

But the same pitch could be more effective coming from a well-funded GOP candidate, some say.

And there is evidence to suggest McMaster – despite the advantage of being the incumbent – might not be a shoo-in for the GOP nomination.

Through June, McMaster’s fundraising only slightly outpaced Templeton, his closest GOP rival. (Candidates will report their third-quarter fundraising in October.)

McMaster’s history of running for statewide office since 1986 also could be used against him – pinning the ’90s era S.C. GOP chairman to the establishment he helped create.

McMaster also has tried – and failed – at capturing the GOP nomination for governor before.

In 2010, S.C. GOP primary voters picked the then-30-something Haley – whose youth and Indian-American heritage helped the GOP buck the perception that it’s a party for old, white men – over McMaster and other challengers.

That trend of wanting something “different” could continue next June, said Furman University political scientist Danielle Vinson, noting Haley, her predecessor Mark Sanford and President Donald Trump all signal the S.C. GOP’s desire to break with establishment and shake things up.

“When I hear Gov. McMaster talk, the words ‘shake things up’ are not what comes to mind.”

McMaster on the microphone

McMaster always makes sure he hits on a few key points when he has a microphone.

As the first statewide-elected official to endorse Donald Trump in South Carolina’s first-in-the-South GOP presidential primary, McMaster often defends the president against perceived attacks.

That allegiance could help energize the GOP base for McMaster, some say, particularly if Trump returns to South Carolina to stump for the governor.

“Trump will be here for Henry,” said state Rep. Phyllis Henderson, R-Greenville. “No doubt, it’s going to be a plus.”

As a cheerleader for South Carolina, McMaster brags on the state as a leader in manufacturing and lauds the state’s quality of life.

South Carolina is “on the cusp of great, great prosperity,” McMaster often says. As a bonus, he adds, South Carolinians can have breakfast at the beach and dinner in the mountains – no problem.

McMaster speaks plainly.

At a prayer breakfast in March, the governor joked he had attended the event as many things: a “regular lawyer,” South Carolina’s attorney general, its largely ceremonial lieutenant governor and, now, as governor.

“This is my favorite way to be,” McMaster said.

‘I hate to tell you’

He also shares lessons learned as a U.S. attorney for South Carolina for President Ronald Reagan in the ’80s, sprinkling in adages and parables to illustrate his points.

Weighing whether to evacuate for Hurricane Irma, McMaster recalled “the old carpenter’s rule, which is measure twice and cut once, that is, don’t go too fast. Be considerate and determine what the best course is.”

Before speaking at an aerospace conference in Columbia last month, McMaster studied hand-written notes on a card.

Then on stage, he shared a story about a “city slicker” who goes to the circus – a story he tells often to illustrate that South Carolinians sometimes are their own worst enemy in not realizing their potential. At the circus, the city slicker sees a big elephant – “Jumbo, and he had a little tiny chain around his leg tied to a little tiny stake.”

The elephant could have walked off anytime but didn’t because the circus “put that chain on his leg as a baby and, now, he doesn’t know that he can walk off,” McMaster said, finishing the story by saying how tired he is of hearing that South Carolina is a poor, small state and can’t do anything.

When telling jokes on the stump, McMaster also frequently is self-deprecating.

Speaking at Bob Jones University last month, McMaster repeated a joke that he had told at last summer’s Republican National Convention, saying he had asked his wife if she had “ever, in her wildest dreams, seen me standing here nominating Donald Trump for president.”

According to McMaster, wife Peggy replied, “I hate to tell you, but I’ve never seen you in any of my wildest dreams.”

‘Channel more excitement’

Bob Jones senior Elliot Kelley, said he thought McMaster’s speech was “one of his best presentations” but added McMaster might have trouble connecting with younger voters.

“Sitting around and hearing stories and telling stories isn’t really something our generation does,” he said. “Some of his analogies aren’t going to make sense.”

The governor also needs to “bring more excitement” in his speeches, Kelley said.

McMaster won’t be able to talk one-on-one with everybody, which is where he connects best with people, Kelley said, adding the governor knows how to work a room of people.

But, when listening to his speeches, “A lot of people are going to zone out, miss something. If he’s able to channel more excitement during his stump speeches, he will negate that problem.”

Republican Connelly-Anne Ragley, a Columbia public affairs consultant, defended McMaster’s style. The governor, she said, “is a gentleman, first and foremost.”

“Sometimes, people can mistake manners for softness,” she said, adding people might “underestimate him because he’s being kind to someone or being respectful.”

“Henry McMaster makes everyone feel like they’re a part of the conversation, that they are included.”

‘Not Nikki Haley’

During Hurricane Irma, McMaster had his first shot as governor at communicating to a broad, nonpartisan audience of South Carolinians, watching his news conferences.

The reviews were not all good.

McMaster took some hits on social media for a confusing delivery of his plans for an evacuation.

Bob Carter, a U.S. Air Force retiree in Summerville and self-described Democrat who sometimes votes Republican, noted on Twitter, “I don’t know what grade he should get. ‘Adequate,’ maybe. Either way, he can go back to his nap.”

McMaster’s energy level was strikingly different compared with that of Haley when she briefed South Carolinians on 2015’s historic flood and 2016’s Hurricane Matthew, noted Furman’s Vinson.

“While I was watching him on the hurricane coverage, the first thing that came to my mind was, ‘Wow, this is not Nikki Haley.’ ”

Haley, Vinson added, “had facts and figures coming at you, at her command, there was a sense that she was in control.”

In contrast, McMaster frequently deferred to other state officials for details.

That is not to say McMaster’s laid-back approach is wrong, Vinson added.

“It comes down to what voters are wanting. Do they want the staid, deliberate kind of steady pace, or someone who is commanding the situation?”

‘He is older. But ... that’s your base’

McMaster reminds Thigpen of an earlier gubernatorial candidate: Arthur Ravenel who, at 65, ran for governor in 1994.

At a Sumter GOP luncheon, Ravenel told the crowd, “I’m in the race. I’m ready to go, hot dog. ... It’ll be door-to-door, store-to-store. ... We’ll be all over like white on rice.”

“Down state they knew him,” said Thigpen, who worked with Ravenel, a U.S. congressman from Charleston. “But when he got in the Republican vote-rich Upstate, he did sound a bit ridiculous, like, ‘Where did this guy come from?’ ”

McMaster might get a similar response on the campaign trail, Thigpen said.

“Henry’s always had a little bit of a Foghorn (Leghorn) way of speaking,” Thigpen said, referring to a common joke comparing McMaster’s speech with the cartoon rooster.

Still, Thigpen defended McMaster, saying his “down-to-earth” speaking style while warning South Carolinians about Irma’s threat was appropriate.

“He sounds like, ‘My God, you’re telling people something they ought to know, but in a situation like this, people don’t want to be lectured to by some highfalutin’ public official,” Thigpen said.

Lexington County GOP chairman Craig Caldwell gives McMaster high marks for his handling of the hurricane and, so far, the recent fallout from the failed V.C. Summer nuclear plant expansion, where the governor forced a critical report to be made public.

Caldwell said S.C. GOP primary voters will care more about McMaster’s track record than his age or speaking style, especially given the voters likely to go to the polls in June.

“I don’t think his age is going to handicap him,” Caldwell said. “He is older. But a majority of the older generation, that’s your base of who’s going to vote.”

This story was originally published September 23, 2017 at 12:57 PM with the headline "Is SC’s McMaster more like a ‘governor 50 years ago’?."