Don't know who you're voting for in SC gov race? You're not alone

If you don't know who you're voting for yet in the race to be South Carolina's governor, a new poll shows you're not alone.

At least one in five voters in both the Democratic and Republican races told pollsters last week that they haven't made up their minds, just two months before the June party primaries, according to a poll by Target-Insyght.

The poll, released Sunday, shows 22 percent of Republican and 24 percent of Democratic primary voters are undecided or don't know which of the candidates they prefer. That could lead to a run-off two weeks after the June 12 primaries.

One race has a clear front-runner.

Incumbent GOP Gov. Henry McMaster of Columbia has the support of 46 percent of Republicans surveyed, a 24-point lead over his chief rival, Catherine Templeton of Mount Pleasant, who has 22 percent of GOP voters behind her, according to the poll. McMaster only needs to pick up a few of the undecided Republicans to finish at more than 50 percent and avoid a run-off.

"He's doing well among Republican voters," pollster Ed Sarpolus said of McMaster. "If you're going to beat the governor, you have to have an issue-driven campaign that tells voters why you're different and why you're better."

The three other Republican candidates all polled at less than 10 percent — Lt. Gov. Kevin Bryant of Anderson at 6 percent, former Lt. Gov. Yancey McGill of Williamsburg at 4 percent and Greenville businessman John Warren at 1 percent.

"South Carolina is succeeding under Governor McMaster's leadership — adding tens of thousands of new jobs and hitting record-low unemployment in the last year — so it is no surprise a huge percentage of people support him," said McMaster spokesperson Caroline Anderegg.

The Democratic primary race is tighter, with the poll finding a tie at 27 percent between state Rep. James Smith of Columbia and technology consultant Phil Noble of Charleston. Florence attorney Marguerite Willis is not far behind at 21 percent.

"From Day 1, everybody has said we're the underdog, and James Smith is the preferred candidate of the State House establishment," Noble said. "Despite all the endorsements ... he's still tied with the underdog."

Noble said his syndicated column and community work have helped him spread a "grassroots" message opposing the "corrupt State House system."

Asked about the poll results, Smith's campaign pointed instead to the reception the Columbia Democrat has received on the campaign trail.

"We are encouraged every day by the positive grassroots response to our campaign from citizens across South Carolina," said spokesman Mike McCauley. "James has a proven track record of building bipartisan support to address the biggest issues challenging our state."

A day before the poll was released, Smith picked up the endorsement of Our Revolution, a progressive organization that sprang out of Bernie Sanders' presidential campaign.

Pollster Sarpolis said Smith could be suffering from being little known outside Columbia.

"State reps tend to believe their notoriety is greater than it is," Sarpolus said. "If you want to run for statewide office, you have to establish statewide name recognition. He has to do more to make the state his own."

The poll was conducted April 3-5. It surveyed 800 likely primary voters, evenly split between Republicans and Democrats. Sarpolus said the responses were weighted according to counties that tend to have heavier turnout for one party or the other, as well as gender, age and race.

The poll relied on live calls to cellphone numbers and a mix of live and automated calls to landlines. It had a margin of error of plus or minus 5 percentage points.

This story was originally published April 9, 2018 at 4:35 PM with the headline "Don't know who you're voting for in SC gov race? You're not alone."