The SC governor’s race has no official candidates yet, but who has the early edge?
None of the potential hopefuls in the South Carolina governor’s race have jumped in, but two early polls released Tuesday ahead of the June 2026 GOP primary have early indications of who has an edge.
A Winthrop University poll showed U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace, a Lowcountry congresswoman representing the Charleston-area, had the highest name recognition with 57% of self-identified South Carolina Republicans either familiar or somewhat familiar with her. The poll was taken between Feb. 21 and March 5 after Mace gained national attention with a House floor speech where she accused four men of rape and voyeurism.
The margin of error was 4.63 percentage points.
Attorney General Alan Wilson was familiar or somewhat familiar to 44% of Republicans.
Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette was familiar or somewhat familiar to 38%.
The poll found U.S. Rep. Ralph Norman, R-Rock Hill, was at 35% familiarity, Upstate businessman John Warren at 30% familiarity, and state Sen. Josh Kimbrell, R-Spartanburg, at 26%
But in a head-to-head matchup between Evette, Mace and Wilson may be a different story, at least 15 months before ballots are cast in the GOP primary.
A Trafalgar Group poll of likely Republican voters conducted between Saturday and Monday, found Evette had an early lead if the GOP primary were held today.
Evette had 31.5% support, Mace was at 29.1% and Wilson was at 27.9%.
The poll had a 2.9% margin of error.
Both polls unsurprisingly found that President Donald Trump had a high approval rating among Republicans in the reliably red state, reinforcing why the three perceived front-runners continue to try to align themselves closely with the chief executive.
Trafalgar put Trump’s approval rating at 73.7% among South Carolina Republicans. Winthrop had Trump’s approval rating at 81% among the Palmetto State GOP.
This story was originally published March 11, 2025 at 9:50 AM.
