He forced a GOP runoff for SC governor. What’s next for Greenville’s John Warren?
Editor’s note: We caught up with the most interesting people we wrote about in 2018. Learn what’s new with each this week.
This year may not have turned out the way John Warren had hoped politically.
But for his business, real estate lending firm Lima One Capital, 2018 has been a lucrative one.
The 39-year-year-old political novice was virtually unknown to S.C. voters in February, when he entered the GOP race for S.C. governor. Four months later, Warren forced Gov. Henry McMaster — a fixture in S.C. Republican politics for 35 years — into a runoff for the GOP nomination.
Today, the Greenville Republican has returned to the private sector as chairman of Lima One Capital, overseeing the mortgage finance company’s continued expansion.
“We’re across the country now,” offering loans for new construction, long-term rental units and multifamily housing, Warren said. “We now have over 120 employees and hired more than 50 employees this year.”
The past five months have also been filled spending quality time with his wife, Courtney, and their two young sons, Stevie and Drew — including boating on the lake and attending Furman University basketball games.
“Right now, I’m focused on business and family,” Warren said. “I clearly have a desire to serve the people of South Carolina and care about the conservative reform movement we need in this state. But, (I) have not made any decision what, if any, political plans will be in my future. ... The capacity of service has just not been determined.”
Warren, addressing a raucous and cheering crowd of supporters in a hotel ballroom in downtown Greenville after conceding the June 26 runoff, said: “Conservatives across this state are united, and they want to take their government back from the special interests, the political insiders. And that message is worth repeating for years to come.
“Tonight was not our night, but I’m confident over years to come that the conservative movement will continue to grow.”
Warren, a former Marine infantry officer, plans to continue to push for conservative reforms to the state’s ethics laws, tax code, education and workforce development systems, social services and state-owned power utility “to bring accountability to taxpayer dollars.”
“There is a very large group of people who are fed up with the way things have always been done in Columbia,” Warren said. “I think right now it’s a matter ... of coming up with the right platform and avenue to continue those goals.”
This story was originally published December 29, 2018 at 5:00 AM.
