Two women want to be SC’s second-in-command. What do they plan to accomplish?
Pamela Evette and Tally Casey have a few things in common.
They’re both women who hail from the Upstate, and both want to be South Carolina’s No. 2 in charge.
But asked what priorities they’d push if given the chance to take the bully pulpit, however small, they greatly differ.
Republican Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette, who first joined Gov. Henry McMaster’s ticket four years ago, says she wants to focus on school choice and help address business needs should the governor be reelected in November. Democrat Tally Casey, who joined Joe Cunningham’s campaign for governor in August as he seeks to be the first Democrat to hold the office since Jim Hodges’ 1998 election, says protecting women’s right to abortion access is a high priority.
The office of South Carolina’s lieutenant governor is largely symbolic. And it’s up to the governor to determine how to utilize the position.
But, like the United State’s vice president’s role, the lieutenant governor’s job becomes ever more important when the governor can’t fulfill their duty because of death or a disability.
“Other than that, their other qualification and role of the office is to continue breathing,” said Scott Huffmon, who runs the Winthrop University Poll.
The State newspaper recently followed Casey and Evette around the state to learn how each sees her role and the office itself.
Evette, an Upstate businesswoman who started Quality Business Solutions, has over the past four years functioned as a spokeswoman for McMaster, championing the Republican, advocating for school choice and traveling the state to connect with people who have problems with cabinet agencies.
If Cunningham is elected, Casey, a law firm CEO and former fighter pilot, said she will serve as an ambassador for the governor’s administration and help draw attention to areas such as veterans and women’s issues.
Pamela Evette: Businesswoman turned politician
When Evette joined the McMaster ticket four years ago, she had to learn a lot quickly.
“Four years ago was like drinking from a fire hose. I listened a lot more than I talked,” Evette said. “I’ve tried to represent the state well and our office well and carve a niche and what I think the lieutenant governor should be doing. What it should be doing is helping the governor solve problems that are happening here in our state.”
She has found her role and is able to speak about and champion issues she is passionate about such as education and business.
“What I’ve found since I’ve been lieutenant governor, sitting down (and) listening more than you’re talking helps to actually solve a lot of problems here in our state,” Evette said in August after a ribbon-cutting ceremony at the Midlands Middle College charter school in West Columbia.
As McMaster’s right-hand woman, Evette reaches out to people around the state including meeting with teachers in classrooms and relaying messages to cabinet agencies.
“You have a lot of people that work in specific areas, but their job isn’t to travel around the state and be in the trenches and hear what’s happening,” Evette said. “I’ve said it over and over again that you can’t get anything accomplished sitting at a desk in Columbia.”
Evette said she wants to use her platform to promote school choice, where parents can opt to send a child to a private, charter or another public school to meet a student’s individual needs. In recent years, state lawmakers have pushed for expanding school choice by using public money to pay for scholarships at private schools or other educational costs, but the most recent effort failed this year.
“I think it’s important for every parent to have choices. And we look at other states that have made huge strides in education, it’s always been wrapped around that,” Evette said.
Michael Dey, who handles government affairs for the Western Upstate Association of Realtors and whose political arm has endorsed the McMaster-Evette ticket, said he knows he could relay messages to the governor such as when it comes to realtor licensing bills or property rights.
While state lawmakers are the primary contacts when groups like Dey’s are trying to get a bill passed, Dey said, “If it’s passed, then we’re obviously talking with the governor about signing it. So she’s representing the office and so she’s carrying the banner. ... We know she takes stuff back to the governor’s office.”
If anything were to cause the governor to be unable to carry out his duties, Evette would be the one to step into the role. The line of succession is of note given that McMaster’s election opponent has pointedly drawn attention to the governor’s age as a reason he shouldn’t be reelected.
The Cunningham campaign has made an effort to point to 75-year-old McMaster’s longevity in state government and argue that a new generation of leaders is needed. Cunningham has even called for an age limit on politicians, something that has received blowback from U.S. House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn and Democratic Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott, who endorsed McMaster.
How effective the age concern will be with voters remains to be seen.
“I think absent a serious health scare, folks are not fretting about Henry McMaster’s age as much as Joe Cunningham would like them to be,” Huffmon said.
With age could come health concerns, but in recent years, McMaster’s office has only reported a couple of health issues the governor faced.
McMaster earlier this year was set to undergo arthroscopic knee procedure when an electrocardiogram found an irregular heartbeat. He had to be under anesthesia for five to 10 minutes for a procedure to bring his heartbeat back to normal.
When McMaster caught COVID-19 in December 2020, he only had a cough and slight fatigue. He received monoclonal antibody treatment and returned to the office the day he left quarantine.
And Evette says McMaster’s age shouldn’t be a concern.
“My mother’s going to be 94 this year, which is a lot older than the governor, and I’m telling you that she can run circles around most people half her age,” Evette said during an interview in Anderson. “Why aren’t we judging people individually? Why are we judging them with this notion of age or gray hair on your head?”
Evette says she and McMaster share the same staff, which coordinates scheduling and subject matter briefings. She said she works well with the governor “as one unit.”
“I’m briefed on everything. I understand everything that’s going on,” Evette said. “Whether it’s coming from the staff or the governor, us sitting down, me sitting down with the staff. I know what’s going on. And so I think what the people of South Carolina should take comfort in is that we are well prepared no matter what the situation is here. And in that I think that’s important.”
Tally Casey: Lawyer and former fighter pilot hits the stump
South Carolina Democrats wanted Casey to run for something else: U.S. Senate, attorney general, even governor.
Instead, the former fighter pilot turned down those previous overtures because she had young children while serving as CEO of the Wyche law firm.
“This is a real challenge, and I really enjoyed practicing law. I’ve been serving my community and my state in that way,” Casey said after a campaign stop in Columbia in August.
But protecting access to abortion in South Carolina after the U.S. Supreme Court Dobbs decision motivated the Columbia resident to finally enter politics as Cunningham’s running mate.
She enters the political fray at a moment when abortion is at center stage, as South Carolina lawmakers in recent months have tried to push forward abortion bans beyond the state’s fetal heartbeat law. The current effort may ultimately fail this year because the Senate and House disagree on what to pass.
“We all know the one thing that kept this from passing this time is our voices reaching out to our legislators and stressing the importance of not stripping away the rights of women,” Casey told a crowd in Spartanburg this month. “It’s enough now, but those efforts are going to come back, and we know that the next time they make those efforts we have a governor who will veto any such legislation, and that’s why we need to elect Joe Cunningham.”
Those who have worked with Casey in the legal world speak highly of the lieutenant governor hopeful.
Carl Mueller, 71, a lawyer in Greenville, previously worked for Wyche with Casey.
“She’s honest, she’s courageous, she stands up for her beliefs, and she will tell you what her beliefs are,” Mueller said. “The problem with this country right now, lots of politicians are looking for the lowest common denominator, they want to drag people down. Tally doesn’t want to do that. Tally wants to lift them up.”
Cunningham’s campaign has played up up that Casey is originally from Greenville as a move to gin up support in the Upstate.
“I love being here,” Casey told The State after speaking at a Spartanburg County Democratic Party meeting. “The Upstate is important. I understand people here. I grew up here, I lived here. … This area has changed and grown so much since I lived here, and I just want to do all I can do to grow and change the right way.”
Casey said if she and Cunningham are elected, she would want to work on veterans’ issues and women’s health and education while in office. She has served on the board of Palmetto Basecamp, which works to help homeless veterans move into housing, and on the board of the Women’s Rights and Empowerment Network.
She also sees herself as someone who can deliver an administration’s message.
“(Cunningham) knows that he can always have me as a proxy, as an ambassador, someone who can seek out and listen to people (about) what the needs are, help address those issues, help get messages out, help pay attention in areas where one person may not have the ability to do so,” Casey said.
How to watch the lieutenant governor debate
Who: Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette debating Democrat Tally Casey
When: 8 p.m. Tuesday
Where: S.C. ETV will livestream the debate on Facebook, its YouTube channel and online at scetv.org.
This story was originally published October 11, 2022 at 5:30 AM.
