SC businessman eyes new acquisition: The Governor's Mansion

▪ One in a series of articles on the candidates running to be South Carolina's next governor.

MOUNT PLEASANT, SC — John Warren has never run for elected office before. That, he thinks, is one of his biggest selling points as he asks South Carolinians to make him their next governor.

The 39-year-old chairman of an Upstate lender argues the experience of building his own company has better prepared him to tackle the state's problems than has the experience in government of his four GOP primary opponents.

Entrepreneurs "take complex problems and build a business around solutions to that problem," Warren said before a recent speech to a Republican lunch group. "Only a businessman can bring those types of solutions to government."

Seated at a table at the Harbor Breeze restaurant in Mount Pleasant, at the foot of the Ravenel Bridge, Warren rattles off a list of challenges facing South Carolina — from utility troubles to education to taxes to infrastructure.

All of those problems will continue, Warren says, if the state continues to be led by "unsuccessful people who have never held a real job, who have always lived off the taxpayer."

'We're going to be in the runoff'

Warren has started to distance himself from some of the candidates in June 12's GOP primary race.

Most pundits think Warren has passed Lt. Gov. Kevin Bryant of Anderson and former Lt. Gov. Yancey McGill of Williamsburg, and is challenging former state agency director Catherine Templeton for a potential runoff spot against Gov. Henry McMaster on June 26.

The businessman is spending a large amount of his own money in the race — more than $3 million, according to campaign filings this week. Wednesday, he named Charleston businessman Pat McKinney — who previously ran unsuccessfully against McMaster in the 2014 GOP primary for lieutenant governor — as his running mate in the upcoming primary.

"We believe we're going to be in the runoff, and we'll win the runoff," Warren said. "There's a ton of momentum. When people hear our message, it resonates with them.

"Gov. McMaster has 99.1 (percent) name ID, and he's polling in the low 30s because people know who he is. He's a career politician. He's been an employer of Richard Quinn for 30 years. He has no solutions," Warren said, referring to a longtime McMaster consultant tied to an ongoing State House corruption investigation.

Nonsense, said McMaster spokesperson Caroline Anderegg.

"Henry McMaster is already working hard to solve problems as governor," his campaign spokesperson said, pointing to the Columbia Republican's efforts to bring jobs to the state, his support of tax cuts, and his vows to block sanctuary cities and funding for Planned Parenthood.

Rick Whisonant, a political science professor at York Technical College, thinks Warren still has a mountain to climb to make a GOP runoff. In part, that is because he largely was unknown until very recently.

"Templeton's name recognition is the trump card," said Whisonant, arguing Warren's momentum might be building too late to carry him into a runoff. "He's definitely gained (on Templeton). But is it enough?"

Warren can play to strengths.

For instance, he definitely is a political outsider, a strength in an age when outsiders seem to be the preferred candidates.

Templeton "has more difficulty playing the outsider because of her obvious connections with Nikki Haley" from 2011 to 2015 as the head of two state agencies — Labor, Licensing and Regulation and, later, Health and Environmental Control, the political scientist said.

Warren knows where he needs to aim his fire in the closing weeks of the campaign. Talking about April's deadly riot at a Lee County prison, he makes a reference to Templeton's proposal to bring back firing squads for executions.

"You can bring great conservative business solutions to complex problems," he said. "It doesn't do any good to say, 'Bring back firing squads.' That's just pandering, and it's not a solution. What we need is someone who can offer solutions to these complex problems."

At last week's debate between the Republican candidates, Warren also made reference to Templeton once voting for Democratic state Sen. Vincent Sheheen over Republican Haley. Warren's campaign even launched its own website targeting Templeton.

Templeton spokesman Mark Powell notes Templeton subsequently joined Haley's administration and was interviewed by President Donald Trump for a position after the 2016 election.

"This is nothing but a typical false attack from the good old boys, and voters will see right through it,” Powell said, adding the two candidates have "a clear distinction in philosophies," citing firing squads as an example. "Catherine Templeton wants to swiftly deliver justice to criminals condemned to die. John Warren seems to prefer the 'justice delayed' approach."

Warren's solution to the state's prison woes centers on his plan to merge the state departments of Corrections, and Probation, Pardon and Parole, a move that would save an estimated $2.8 million, according to a 2012 Haley administration study. That money could go toward hiring more prison guards and raising the pay of officers already guarding the state's most dangerous criminals.

Warren was in Charleston last week to promote his plans for restructuring the Department of Transportation, including merging it with the State Infrastructure Bank, eliminating the DOT commission and placing the agency in the governor's cabinet.

"If you've seen the game whack-a-mole, that's how DOT attacks our road problems," Warren said, noting an emergency bridge closure on I-526 that is snarling Charleston traffic.

"Something happens, there's a rush to solve it, and there's no strategic plan in place to make sure that our roads are paved, repaved or create new roads, based on need and amount of travel. Right now, it's based on whether different regions have strong political players in the Senate."

Placing more agencies under the governor's office is a decades-old, popular solution for many gubernatorial candidates. But it does not guarantee a department will be better run. The recent prison riot, for example, happened long after the Corrections Department was placed in the governor's cabinet. Similarly, the state's Department of Social Services long has reported directly to the governor and remains woefully understaffed while children die.

Warren blames mismanagement of cabinet agencies that he says would end under his administration. "Henry McMaster has mismanaged multiple government agencies," said Warren campaign manager Taylor Hall.

McMaster's camp disputes that. "The governor has cut ted tape and increased accountability at government agencies, and will continue to do so," Anderegg said.

The most dangerous city on Earth

Running for governor isn't the most difficult assignment Warren has taken on.

Warren was a student at Washington and Lee University on Sept. 11, 2001, when that day's terrorist attacks led him to join the Marine Corps. After a year of training, his company deployed to Iraq in March 2006. Warren, an infantry officer, was stationed in Ramadi, the flashpoint of a still-smoldering insurgency.

"Ramadi was the Sunni capital of the world," he said. "The Marine Corps had just cleared Fallujah, so any of the insurgents that remained went over to Ramadi. It was known as ... the most dangerous city on Earth."

Part of Warren's mission was an early lesson in political outreach, trying to convince the locals — "the Sunni tribal leaders, the sheiks, the imams" — to resist al-Qaeda in the region, something Warren calls "the most difficult sales job I've ever had."

"What you were asking them to do, they were really risking their life," he said. "If they (al-Qaeda) caught any of the Ramadi citizens helping us, they would torture them."

Warren came face-to-face with that enemy in combat, something he points to as a test of his leadership ability.

At the Mount Pleasant event, Vietnam veteran Myron Harrington of Charleston said Warren's "courage" was a good indicator of his leadership ability.

"If you've got what it takes to lead Marines, you've got to be competent or they are going to kill you," Harrington said.

Call sign

In June 2008, Warren returned to civilian life. But, like many veterans, he found it difficult to re-enter the civilian workforce.

"I would hear what a lot of veterans hear at the end of a job interview," he said. " 'John, we really appreciate your service, but we don't feel like you have any real-world experience or industry experience.' "

That led Warren back to his entrepreneurial roots as an 8-year-old in Greenville, when he would go door-to-door shining shoes for 50 cents a pair.

"I wanted to be somewhere in the financial sector, so I created a job," he said.

Warren had "flipped" a couple houses to make money before going into the Marines. So, he adds, "I was familiar with real estate and thought I could build a company around something to do with real estate."

He started Lima One Capital, named after his call sign in Iraq. Today, the Greenville-based mortgage lender operates in 42 states, with 85 full-time employees and 250 contractors across the country.

The Palmetto State has seen major global companies invest here in the past few decades, but Warren sees a dark side. He told the Mount Pleasant lunch group about a friend who said his only regret was that he started his business in South Carolina.

"He said, 'If I had started my business in Georgia or New York or Germany, they would have rolled out the red carpet for me' " to move to South Carolina. Now, Warren said, his friend has to compete with an out-of-state rival who was given a major property tax exemption.

It's important for the state to nurture local businesses, too, Warren says.

Warren says he has been told it would make more sense for his company to be located in New York. But he is a Greenville native. And, he adds, "I love our state."

John Warren

One of five Republicans running for the GOP nomination for governor

Hometown: Greenville

Age: 39

Family: Wife, Courtney; two sons

Professional: Founder and chairman, Lima One Capital; former Marine Corps captain

Education: Bachelor's, Washington and Lee University, 2003; master's of business administration, New York University, 2013

Money raised for race: $3,261,490.91, including more than $3 million of his own money

This story was originally published May 31, 2018 at 3:50 PM with the headline "SC businessman eyes new acquisition: The Governor's Mansion."